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By EDGAR MATHEW BACON 

Narragansett Bay : Its Historic 

and Romantic Associations 

8°. Uniform with "The Hudson River." With 
70 Illustrations 

TKe Hudson River from Ocean 
to Source 

Historical — Legendary — Picturesque 

8°. With over 100 Illustrations. 

CKronicles of TarrytoAvn and 
Sleepy Hollow 

16°. With 23 full-page Illustrations. 



G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 



Ne-w "YorK 



London 



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)L1) \V1M).\111,L ON AijL'ID.NKI.. K 



Narragansett Bay 

Its Historic and Romantic Associations 
and Picturesque Setting 



By 

Edgar Mayhew Bacon 

Author of •* The Hudson River from Ocean to Source 
" Chronicles of Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow," etc. 



Illustrated with Fifty Drawings by the Author 
and with Numerous Photographs 



G. P. Putnam's Sons 

New York and London 
Zbc IRnickerbocher ipress 

1904 






SEP 13 1904 
o GoDyrleht Entry 

CLASS <2. XXO. No. 

CePY B 



Copyright, 1904 



G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 



Published, September, 1904 



■Cbe IRnicljevboclJcr press, Iftcw ^ovk 



Preface 

THE appreciative reception given by the reviewers 
and by the pubHc to The Hudson River from 
Ocean to So2irce, has encouraged the author of 
that work to present in a similar form another vohnne 
emphasising the unique beauty and commemorating the 
great historic interest and the legendary charm of Rhode 
Island's noble bay. 

The preparation of this study of Narragansett Bay 
has afforded a fascinating occupation for several years. 
The collection of material for it has not only necessi- 
tated the examination of old records but has led to 
eventful cruises amonof the islands, visits to famous 
landmarks, sojourns in picturesque towns, and acquaint- 
ance with many delightful people whose courtesy in 
facilitatinof the collection of material calls for orrateful 
acknowledofment. 

Impressed by the important and singular part played 
by the settlers of Narragansett in the development of 
American ideas and ideals, and strongly attracted by 
the romantic tales that are inwoven with the warp of 
history, as well as by the incomparable setting the great 
bay affords for such a subject, the author offers this 



VI 



Preface 



result of his labour as a contribution to the story of 

great American Waterways, with the hope that his 

readers may be imbued with somewhat of his own 

enthusiasm. 

E. M. B. 

New York, May, 1904. 



I 



I 



Contents 



I. — Introductory. . i 

II. — From Providence to Cowesett . . . -15 

III. — The Ambit of the Bay ...... 47 

IV. — The Charm of Old Bristol ..... 78 

V. — From the Top of Pocanoket ..... 109 

VI. — Sea Rovers from the Bay ..... 136 

VII. — The " Gaspee " Affair and Others . . 160 

VIII. — Rhode Island in the Revolution .... 187 

IX. — The Narragansett Country ..... 218 

X. — Ghosts at Newport ...... 270 

XI. — Along Shore on Aquidneck ..... 310 

XII. — Old Haunts in East Greenwich and VVickford . 321 

XIII. — A Budget of Legends ...... 346 

Index . . . , 369 



Illustrations 



Old Windmill on Aquidneck .... Frontispiece 

Rock Inscription at Hopevvorth on Mount Hope Bay. At- 
tributed to the Northmen ...... 3 

Crystal Rock, at the foot of Mount Hope, nearly Opposite 
Fall River. It is Composed of White Quartz, with 
Inferior Crystals of Garnet Interspersed ... 7 

Mount Hope. The Supposed " Hop " of the Northmen, 
and Later the Headquarters of King Philip 

Group of Sailboats on Providence River .... 

The Beautiful Gates of Brown University, Opening upon 
a Campus Shaded by Fine Elm Trees, on College Hill, 
Providence ........ 



The Canoe was Hauled Under the Stern of the White 
Man's Boat 

The Shores of Providence River .... 

Warwick Neck, at the Entrance to Cowesett Bay . 

Samuel Gorton's Leather Breeches, now in Possession o 
Mrs. Sam Clarke ...... 

Old Church at Apponaug ..... 

" Greene Memorial " House, at Apponaug 

An Extensive View of Narragansett Bay, as Seen from the 
Top of Mount Hope. In the Distance, Beyond the 
Dumplings, is the Atlantic Ocean . . . . 

Fish Nets and Boats. ....... 



II 

19 

23 

29 

31 

34 

37 
39 
43 



49 

53 



Illustrations 



Fish Hawk's Nest ....... 

Light-house on Dutch Island ..... 

The Dumplings, on Conanicut Island 

Fort Adams, Guarding Newport Harbour 

Bishop's Rock, in Newport Harbour 

Beaver-Tail Light and Brenton's Reef Light-ship 

Sandy Point Light-house ...... 

View of Bristol Ferry from Prudence Island . 

Upper End of Aquidneck (Rhode Island) 

Colt House, Bristol ....... 

The Green at Bristol, Showing Part of Church and the 
Court-house ....... 

Where the Cup Defenders are Built. The Herreshoff 
Works at Bristol ...... 

Pappoosesquaw Neck ...... 

The Narrows, at the Mouth of the Kickamuet River 

A Distant View of Mount Hope, from the West Shore o 
Mount Hope Bay ...... 

Philip's Rock ........ 

Woodland Border of the Swamp where King Philip Fell 

Mount Hope Bay, Looking toward Tiverton . 

Taunton River, between Taunton and Dighton 

Fall River, with Sparrow Island in the Foreground, from 
Hopeworth Shore ...... 

At the Entrance of Mount Hope Bay. Starting Point o 
King Philip's Forays into Massachusetts . 

Commodore Abraham Whipple .... 

From a water-colour in the collection of the Rhode Island Histori 
cal Society. 



55 
57 
59 

62 

63 
65 
69 

73 
1^ 



85 

89 

95 

103 

107 
1 1 1 
117 
121 
125 

129 

135 
141 



I 



I 
I 



Illustrations 



XI 



Captain Fone's Schooner Tartar Luring the French 

Frigate away from the Merchantmen . . . 1 50 

From Mount Hope the Saconnet River Lies Exposed to 

View hke a Chart i53 

The Warwick Shore across Cowesett Bay . . .162 

Governor Joseph Wanton . ...... 165 

The Burning of the Gaspec . . . . . -173 

Tiverton Wharves. The Site of Joseph Wanton's Ship- 
yards . . . . . • • • • .181 

The British Fleet in Narragansett Bay . . . .188 

The Capture of General Prescott. Boats Passing near 

British Vessels . . . . . . • • '93 

Where General Sullivan's Force Crossed to the Mainland 201 

Rocks at Narragansett Pier . . . . . .219 

The Bathing Beach at Narragansett Pier . . . .231 

The small building on the extreme left is the United States Life-Sav- 
ing Station, and next to it the now ruined Casino. 

Typical Narragansett P^irmhouse ..... 239 

Old Apple Orchard on Boston Neck .... 249 

Whale Rock Light-house, Between the Narragansett 

Shore and Conanicut Island ..... 253 

Haunted Mill in Kingstown . . . . . • 258 

Along Shore 261 

Rocks at Point Judith 265 

Sea Wall at Newport, from the Cliff Walk . . .275 

In Quiet Waters . . . . - • • .281 

Shore Rocks beyond the Public Bathing Beach at Newport 292 

The Road to the Beach, Newport 297 

A Cottage on the Shore . . . . • • -3'^ 

The North End of Aquidneck, Coal Pier, and Breakers . 317 



xii Illustrations 



PAGE 



East Greenwich Harbour ....... 322 

The Birthplace of General Nathaniel Greene, since Re- 
modelled ........ . 327 

The Governor Greene House on the North Side of Division 
Street, a Short Distance from the Centre of East 
Greenwich . . . . . . . . -33^ 

The Windmill House, Once the Residence of Professor 

Geo. W. Greene ....... 336 

The Babbitt Farmhouse, near Wickford. The Building 
is said to be an Enlargement of Richard Smith's 
Blockhouse ........ 343 

The Water Front at Old Wickford ..... 347 

Piano from an Old Wickford House . . -355 

Map of Narragansett Bay . .... at oid 



Narragansett Bay 



Narragansett Bay 



Introductory 

THE Skeleton in Armour meets us on the thresh- 
old of all investigation into early Narragansett 
history. He lays claim to more than one eligible 
site in New England and resists eviction by the very 
ambiguity of the evidence upon which his claims are 
based. 

The ancient sag^as of the Northmen are the docu- 
ments relied upon by historians for our meagre know- 
ledge of facts now generally accepted concerning the 
early voyagers to the shores of North America. No 
student to-day would dream of admitting the claim of 
Columbus to priority as the discoverer of America. 
Bjarni Herjulfsen, who sailed from Iceland toward 
Greenland in the year 986, and was driven by stress of 
weather into a far and wonderful country, and Leif the 
son of Eric, who fourteen years later was incited by 
Bjarni's story to follow his course, must both have seen 
the pleasant shores of New England, but beyond this 
we can be sure of nothings. The sum of our wisdom on 



2 Narragansett Bay 

tliis head is contained in two statements which may be 
taken as authoritative. Professor Max Miiller, speaking 
of the knowledge of America possessed by the country- 
men of Bjarni and Leif, said : " I have met with nothing 
to shake my beHef that the Northmen possessed such 
knowledge," while from Bancroft's conclusion that "the 
soil of the United States has not one vestige of their 
presence," there is to day no noteworthy dissent. 

Professor Rafn years ago identified Rhode Island 
as the " Yineland " of the Northmen, while Anderson, 
Goodrich, Haven, and others have followed his lead. 
There was a time when the country went mad over the 
theories of the Swedish antiquaries and their American 
disciples, and swallowed relics with a good mediaeval 
fervour. Longfellow was only one of the thousands who 
caught the infection, and his poems upon the alleged 
Norse tower at Newport, and the greatly misunderstood 
armed skeleton, dug up at Fall River, showed him no 
more credulous than his neighbours. Actually the skel- 
eton " in rude armour dressed " was arrayed in nothing 
more convincing than a brass or copper plate or shield 
over his breast, a belt made of cylinders of the same 
metal arranged not unlike a modern cartridge-belt, and 
a quantity of arrow heads, all of which details of cos- 
tume are known to have been peculiar to Indians living 
within thirty miles of Fall River and not to the North- 
men. Moreover, the mode of burial, the skeleton hav- 
ing been found sitting bolt upright, indicates the 
Indian and not the Scandinavian. 



Introductory 3 

Inscribed rocks have been found in several places 
near Mount Hope. At Hopeworth, on the west shore 
of Mount Hope Bay, is one, at Dighton another, and 
still others at Tiverton and Portsmouth. That at Digh- 
ton, upon the Taunton River, where the stream, though 
less than half a mile broad, has a tide-rise of several feet, 
was first mentioned in 1680, when white men had been 






ROCK INSCRIPTION AT HOPEWORTH ON MT. HOPE BAY. ATTRIBUTED 
TO THE NORTHMEN 

in the neighbourhood for half a century or more. Cotton 
Mather, about the year 1 700, gave a description of a 
rock at Taunton and alluded to the fact that it is partly 
covered at very high tide, speaking also of the lines 
as being "very deeply engraved, no man knows when 
or how." 

We have a hint of the rate of effacement or obliter- 
ation by tide erosion. In the first decade of the 19th 
century the lines of the Dighton Rock inscription were, 
by actual measurement, one inch broad and half an 
inch deep. In 1875 they were described as almost 
indistinguishable, except under very close inspection. 



4 Narragansett Bay 

while to-day there is merely a trace of them remaining. 
In other words, we have the rate of destruction, rough- 
ly stated, one half inch in a century. To have endured 
since the time of Leif the Lucky, the inscription must 
therefore have been originally at least five inches in 
depth and each line not less than five inches in breadth. 
To have allowed space between the lines at all com- 
mensurate with such a width, the distance between 
centre and centre should be at least ten inches. In the 
case of the Mount Hope Bay inscription, where the 
rock is much softer and the destruction consequently 
much more rapid, the whole surface of the bowlder 
would not have sufficed for a fraction of the lines that 
compose the inscription. Nor can we conceive that a 
warrior or sailor with such implements as may have 
been found in Leif's vessel, could have cut any one of 
the hieroglyphs upon the colossal scale implied. 

Runes composed of lines nearly half a foot in width 
and depth, were, I believe, quite beyond the skill of any 
stonecutter of that day and race. I have several times 
examined the Mount Hope Bay rock within the past 
five years and I find the change in that time very 
marked — there is hardly anything left of it. Formerly 
it was above tide water, but has been carried down 
within the past half-century to its present bed and is 
now washed daily by the waves. 

The best answer that we can return to the claims of 
Leif and his Northmen to the settlement of Mount 
Hope is the Scotch verdict of "not proven," though 



Introductory 5 

by the same testimony the claim is not disproven. 
The description of the saga is not minute in all partic- 
ulars, but it is graphic and certainly suggests Mount 
Hope Bay as well as it does any spot upon the New 
England coast — perhaps a little better. 

There is much stronger evidence to support the 
theory that Verrazani, called sometimes a French navi- 
gator, but more justly a Florentine corsair, sailing in 
1524 under a commission from Francis I, discovered 
Narragansett Bay and landed where Newport now 
stands. Of course there has been dissent and discus- 
sion, and Verrazani and his map have been a bone of 
contention to many wise geographers, but nevertheless 
it does appear that the water that he called the Bay of 
Refuge, and which afterwards came to be called the 
Bay of St. John the Baptist, is the same to which we 
give the more musical Indian name Narragansett, and 
that the island that he named Louisa, after the king's 
mother, was that which now bears the name of its later 
discoverer, the Dutch navigator Adrian Block. 

Block attached a number of names that stuck, but 
not all of his titles were adhesive. He named the 
main body of water, the great bay itself, after the 
prince of Nassau. Block, with the patient painstaking 
of a good sailor, made exhaustive soundings of the bay 
and all its arms and tributaries and prepared a chart 
that could leave no chance for controversy as to the 
waters he claimed to have explored. 

A very brief glance at the geology of the Narra- 



6 Narragansett Bay 

gansett region may not be amiss in this place. We 
find that the tract of land lying between Providence 
and Greenwich Bay " bounded westerly by a line run- 
ning about half a mile east of Olneyville, to the N. W. 
extremity of Greenwich Bay, and easterly to an irreg- 
ular line from half a mile to two miles west of Provi- 
dence Bay, etc.," belongs to the Tertiary period. All 
that part of the State west of Greenwich and Kings- 
town is composed of primary rock, which also occurs in 
the lower end of Conanicut Island and through the 
eastern part of Newport. The western end of New- 
port is of metamorphic rock with many bowlders piled 
along the shores. All of the remainder of Aquidneck, 
Conanicut, Prudence, and the main shore of Narragan- 
sett Bay, except the western half of Bristol (which is 
primary rock), is transition grau-wacke. 

In various localities iron and other minerals appear, 
and numerous fields of peat are found in some parts of 
the State. The north end of Rhode Island (/. e., Aquid- 
neck) contains coal, but of a quality that has not proved 
profitable when put upon the market. 

Block Island is of Diluvian formation. A line drawn 
northward from Wickford on the west side of the bay 
through Olneyville and from Lymans north-west to the 
Massachusetts border, marks a sharp line of division be- 
tween the primary rock of the western half of the state 
and the transition gr. wacke and Tertiary formations of 
the land bordering or surrounded by the bay. West of 
the upper part of such a line is a strip four or five miles 




W as 
> 3 



^ o 



s S 



I 



Introductory 9 

in width and about eighteen miles in length, of horn- 
blende, with numerous ledges of limestone. 

Tiverton and Little Compton, east of the bay, are 
composed of primary rock, and correspond with the east 
half of Bristol Neck, while the upper end of Rhode 
Island, thrust between them, is of transition gr. wacke. 
Mount Hope is composed of granite upon its western 
side and white quartz on the eastern. 

Near the eastern base of Mount Hope, forming part 
of the gateway of the bay, there is a striking promontory 
of white quartz interspersed with inferior crystals of 
garnet. This headland, appropriately named "crystal 
rock," rises almost abruptly and without verdure of any 
kind to a height of forty or fifty feet and is covered on 
the top with a grove of cedars and junipers. 

Narragansett Bay is so irregular in its outline that it 
is difficult to make a word picture that will convey any 
clear idea of its contour. Providence lies at the ex- 
treme northern end, at the head of a long estuary that 
is known as the Providence River. Upon the western 
shore of the bay on an irregular line, the general di- 
rection of which from Providence is a little west of 
south, there are among others the historic landmarks 
of Pawtuxet, Warwick, East Greenwich, Wickford, 
Kingston, Narragansett, and Point Judith. Beyond 
Point Judith southward is Haiti, and eastward the coast 
of Europe. 

The other shore runs south-easterly from Providence 
through several towns to Bristol, where it curves sharply 



lo Narragansett Bay 

east and northward and, forming the beautiful and irreg- 
ular sheet of water known as Mount Hope Bay, makes 
a southerly line from Fall River through Tiverton and 
Little Compton, to the extreme point of Saconnet, 
which forms the south-eastern extremity of the Saconnet 
River. 

Between the two shores thus roughly described there 
are three large islands that divide the bay into separate 
channels. The greatest of these islands is the most 
easterly one and is known as Aquidneck or Rhode 
Island. Its upper extremity extends into Mount Hope 
Bay and its southern capes are washed by the Atlantic 
Ocean. The arm of the bay that flows between Aquid- 
neck and the eastern shore is called the Saconnet or 
Seaconnet River, though properly it is not a river, but 
a strait, and so it used to be called upon the old maps. 
Portsmouth is at one end of Aquidneck Island, and 
Newport at the other. 

The second island in size, Conanicut, has not more 
than one-fifth of Aquidneck's area. It splits the bay 
between Newport and the Kingstown shore into two 
long, irregular channels. The third of the large islands 
is Prudence, the upper end of which is almost midway 
between Bristol and Warwick, and the lower end midway 
between Aquidneck and the north end of Conanicut. 

Besides these larger islands there are almost innu- 
merable smaller ones, some of which have names that 
suggest the trials of navigators in the days before the 
use of steam. There is a story told of a Bristol child, 




■^ t 



V*,' 




Introductory 1 3 

who when asked in Sunday School to repeat a verse 
from the Bible, shut her eyes and chanted 

" Prudence, Patience, Hope, and Despair, 
And little Hog Island right over there." 

Before the advent of the white men and for many 
years afterwards the shores and islands of Narragansett 
Bay were covered with luxuriant forests, except in a 
few places where the Indians cleared the ground for 
some purpose. The islands, now in many cases prac- 
tically denuded of trees, owe their devastation to the 
British encampments during the War for Independence. 
If imagination can add to the present beauty of this 
great labyrinth of waters the charm of that abundant 
verdure described by early navigators and historians, 
the picture will be one of unexampled loveliness. 

Scattered throughout the bay a few capes, islands, 
and estuaries bear the names of early settlers whose 
descendants in some cases form an important fraction 
of the present population. W6 have Dyer's Island, 
Brenton's Reef, Coggeshall's Cove, etc., to perpetuate 
the memories of men who were once leaders in council 
and in war. Some of the place names are Indian and 
many of them are mere navigator's names, handed 
down from generation to generation since the visit of 
Adrian Block. The island which bears the Dutch 
navigator's own name is in the Atlantic Ocean, ten 
miles to the south-east of Point Judith, but it belongs 
to Newport County and may properly be included in 
the present work. 



14 Narragansett Bay 

The modern history of Narragansett Bay could 
almost be told in the biographies of a few prominent 
men. Rhode Island presents an anomalous record, of 
a pioneer democracy with powerful leaders whose as- 
cendency amounted almost to chieftainship. Such 
leaders were Williams, at Providence and after him 
Chad Brown and his descendants; the Potters (Hope- 
still Potter and his son Simeon) at Bristol ; Coggeshall, 
Coddington, Clarke, Brenton, and their companions at 
Newport ; Wanton at Tiverton ; Samuel Gorton at 
Warwick ; the Greenes at East Greenwich ; Benedict 
Arnold at Pawtucket ; the Hazards and others in 
Kings County, and so on to the end of the chapter. 
These were the men who with their companions made 
the little State, and by their progeny helped to people 
it, while by marriage their descendants have not only 
established a general relationship with each other but 
have absorbed also the best of the outside element that 
soucrht homes amongr them durino; the loner colonial 
period. 



Chapter II 
From Providence to Cowesett 

ALL the world knows that when Roger Wilhams 
was driven out of Massachusetts and called a 
troublesome fellow by the Puritan elders, who 
could not brook any suggestion that seemed to impugn 
their infallibility, he came with his few forlorn friends 
to the place that is now Providence. The Indians wel- 
comed him in words that tradition has preserved : " Wha 
Cheer, Natop," which has been variously translated, but 
seems to have been at least a friendly and compliment- 
ary fashion of " passing the time o' day." 

Within a few years of its settlement Providence had 
an unsavory reputation for lawlessness, if the reports of 
its Puritan enemies may be credited, and even if we 
discount those prejudiced accounts, there is still reason 
to believe that the principles of liberty preached by 
Williams had attracted a number of ungovernable spirits, 
whose excesses were for several years beyond the leader's 
control. That this initial attempt to found a city at the 
head waters of Narragansett Bay was grandly successful, 
in spite of the dangers and difficulties that at first beset 
it, was due almost entirely to the wonderful personality^ 

15 



i6 Narragansett Bay 

of that leader, who in face of opposition and lawlessness 
finally shaped its destinies. 

Williams' suffering must have been great, as he was 




^3^-^iSP^ 



THK UPPER ARM OF NARRAGANSETT BAY, CALLED PROVIDENCE RIVER. IN THE 
DISTANCE IS THE CITY OF PROVIDENCE 



obliged to take to the wilderness in the depth of a New 
England winter, at a time when he was in poor health. 
He found a refugfe in the wiofwams of the Indians, to 
whom he aspired to be a teacher, and he had no means 
of subsistence but their coarse and scanty fare; yet he 
not only lived but became physically strong, bearing for 
years the brunt of a great enterprise, the fatigues of 
strenuous missions and long journeys, and the harassing 
cares of a community often ungrateful and nearly always 
unwise. He lived to a grreat asfe and saw the handful 



From Providence to Cowesett 17 

that he planted in the wilderness grow to a mighty 
harvest. 

It is a fact that Williams not only retained trade re- 
lations with the colony from which he had been exiled, 
but was in close correspondence and upon terms of 
personal friendship with several of the leading men of 
the Massachusetts colony. Winthrop, the elder, was 
his associate in the purchase of Prudence Island and in 
other ventures, and these two remarkable men remained 
throughout their lives on a footing of intimacy. Sir 
Henry Vane was another of Williams's close friends; yet 
the latter could not set foot upon the soil of that colony 
where their names were honoured, nor would their 
associates recoo^nise his rioht even to the grround he had 
reclaimed from the untenanted forest. 

The Bay settlers of Boston and Salem were glad 
enough to avail themselves of the exiled leader's kind 
offices and influence to avert the horrors of Indian war; 
but they offered no recognition of his invaluable services, 
and, actually refusing to permit him to embark for 
England from a Massachusetts port, forced him to seek 
that privilege from the Dutch at New York. 

Williams's influence with the Indians was practically 
unbounded. No chief could have exerted a greater 
control over those restless, untrained spirits than did 
this dearly loved member of a race that was both hated 
and dreaded. When after several successful efforts to 
restrain their animosity, excited by the injustice and 
unreasonable severity of the whites, he at last found 



1 8 Narragansett Bay 

them implacable, they even then respected his person 
and expressed their affection for him. Providence had 
for years been spared the arrow and the firebrand be- 
cause of his presence there, but finally, when Williams 
was an old man, the city was threatened with destruction. 
Bravely as of old the leader went out, alone and 
unarmed, to meet the invaders, but for once his argu- 
ments and his pleas were unavailing. He was told that 
because he was an honest man not a hair of his head 
would be harmed, but that the city should be burned. 
It was a startling commentary upon the number of 
honest men the savages had discovered in Providence. 

One of the intimates of Roger Williams, was the 
Rev. Chad Brown, the ancestor of that John Brown 
who stood first among the old merchants of Providence 
at the breaking out of the war for Independence, and 
whose nephew gave his name to Brown University. 
As I have indicated in the account of Bristol in another 
chapter, the energetic inciter of the Gaspee adventure 
became a progenitor of several lines of prominent 
Rhode Islanders and is looked upon as one of the re- 
markable men of his generation. 

It was a distinction to be at the forefront of the 
business activity of Providence in the days when India 
wharf was somethinof more than a name. Then the 
ships from the Orient brought their freight to a good 
market and the old stone warehouses that have 
weathered the storms of more than a century and a 
half, held their fat sides in content as the bales and 



From Providence to Cowesett 19 

boxes and barrels were stowed in their recesses. What 
an unctuous sound have the street names in an old 
Providence directory. Gold and Silver, Bond and 
Money streets mark the once opulent business end of 




GROUP OF SAILBOATS ON PROVIDENCE RIVER 

town, but are now decayed and become dingy harbourers 
of small affairs. 

Rum, molasses, and slaves ; slaves, molasses, and rum 
— how the old merchants juggled with these staple 
articles of a profitable trade, sending Jamaica rum to 



20 Narragansett Bay 

Africa for negroes, and sending African negroes to 
Jamaica for rum ; finding a rich profit in both ends of 
the trade. Had Jamaica been obhged to seek and im- 
port her own negroes she could no more have done it 
than Africa could supply herself with rum. The canny 
New Englander must slip between. Let no self-right- 
eous Gothamite hold up virtuous hands in horror at the 
moral obliquity that indulged in such ventures. New 
York had her own slave traders and her own privateers- 
men and her own traders in " rum and other necessaries 
of life," and even Connecticut, "the land of steady 
habits," was not above an occasional African venture 
on her own hook. 

Providence lies at the very head of the bay, and that 
arm, which is called Providence River, terminates 
abruptly, to all appearances, at a bridge that the people 
of the city fondly proclaim to be the broadest in the 
world. Under busy streets the waters of the Moshau- 
sick seek the bay. It was not the Moshausick but the 
Seekonk River that Roger Williams descended in his 
canoe, comingr down throuofh Pawtucket. His landing- 
place was almost upon the outskirts of the present city. 

If it is true that the cattle of the settlers were the 
original surveyors of Boston streets, one regrets that 
they were not employed in a similar capacity in Provi- 
dence. Imagination fails to picture the demented beast 
that first tracked the clewless layrinth between Roger 
Williams Park on the south and the tangled web of 
streets beyond the new State House. That State 



From Providence to Cowesett 21 

House, beautiful, dignified, almost imposing (it would 
be absolutely so were it not for its neighbourhood of 
car sheds and other abominations), is of white marble 
and is surmounted by a dome of pleasing proportions. 
It marks an important political change in Rhode 
Island, when instead of two capitals and capitols, the 
State resolved to content itself with one, and abandoned 
the historic old building at Newport to its ghosts. 

To write a history or guide book of Providence, is no 
part of the plan of this book, but, at the risk of repeat- 
ing a well-worn truth, I must point once more to its 
meaning and mission. In this little city, twentieth in 
point of population among the cities of the United 
States, the principle of absolute liberty of conscience 
and the complete divorcement of Church and State was 
not only announced as a theory but was actually, for the 
first time in the history of the world, adopted as a 
practical policy. Consider the importance of this mar- 
vellous initiative. It was breaking adrift from the tra- 
ditions of all nations and all times, and making a new 
departure in government — a departure in which Rhode 
Island was in time followed by Massachusetts and the 
other American colonies. 

When William Coddington and his Antinomian 
companions passed through Providence they were 
warmly welcomed and no doubt were impressed by 
the newly promulgated rules by which Williams and 
his company had bound themselves, but upon establish- 
ing the settlements upon Aquidneck the Cotldington 



2 2 Narragansett Bay 

company failed to establish so complete a conception 
of liberty. They extended to all Christians the boon of 
free conscience, and in that they were in advance of the 
rest of the world — but Providence proclaimed freedom 
of conscience to all men of all creeds, whether they were 
Christians, Mahommedans, Jews, or Confucians. 

The history of Rhode Island, or of any part of it, can 
never be written or read justly without a comprehension 
of that underlying- leaven that, hid in so mean and 
unpromising a measure, has leavened the world's thought 
and influenced, more than any other factor, the course 
of human progress. 

There are in Providence, and particularly in the 
neighbourhood of Brown University, some stately man- 
sions of the later colonial time, houses that suggest 
o-enerous livinof and a more careful attention than the 
earlier settlers could afford to all the finer proprieties of 
life. The University was incorporated in 1769 and at 
first took rank with the older institutions of learning in 
the country, but soon declined and for a number of years 
was of little account. Afterwards, under the direction 
of the Rev. Francis Wayland, Jun., it commenced again 
to rise. Seventy-five years ago the following description 
of the University was published: " Under its present 
able and judicious president it has attained a handsome 
elevation and promises to become one of the best seats 
of learning in the Union. The library has lately been 
much increased by donations from England; and the 
philosophical apparatus, which is extensive, is constantly 







< z 

Z Q 

o r 



^ -J 
a; C 



From Providence to Cowesett 25 

improving. The college edifices, of which there are 
two, are located on a lofty eminence, with streets leading 
thereto, richly decorated with fine mansions and elegant 
gardens. About a mile still further east or north-east, 
stands a large building called the Quaker college. It 
was built by Friends and is occupied as a boarding- 
school of that persuasion, and is in excellent order." 

The Quaker school is still "in excellent order "and is 
a flourishing institution, but who would ever recognise 
the " two edifices " of Brown University in the large and 
still g^rowinor cluster of buildings that fronts its beautiful 
campus. Brown is now, as it was then, a Baptist 
stronghold; while the Friends still hold absolute control 
of their venerable school. These institutions are re- 
minders of an earlier time, when the Baptist influence was 
greatest in Providence and that of the Quakers second. 

The principal residential portion of the city has always 
been upon " the Hill," as it is called. Upon the ground 
first occupied by Roger Williams a succession of Rhode 
Island governors lived for a century and a half. The 
west side of the Moshausick was built upon at a later 
day and is more commercial in character, but the really 
old centre of business activity lies toward India Point, 
along the water front. There the earliest settlers had 
apportioned their plats of ground, sufficient for gardens 
and dwellings or stores, each with a frontage upon the 
" towne street " and rear access to tide water. 

When people began to consider the problem of con- 
tact with the outer world, for which purpose the fragile 



26 Narragansett Bay 

canoes of the Indians were obviously inadequate, they 
began to build sloops and schooners, at which art they 
soon became adept, so that a Providence shipyard could 
turn out more and better work in a given time than 
could be produced anywhere else in America, or perhaps 
in the world. There were fashioned the swift old mer- 
chantmen of colonial times, the Indiamen and slave 
ships; there the redoubtable privateers, that had no equal 
on the face of the waters, grew with almost the rapidity 
of Jonah's gourd. There, in Revolutionary days the 
infant navy of the United States came into being, and 
sailed thence to harass the less agile ships of Great 
Britain. Sloops and schooners — of which I have 
spoken — there were in plenty, and many of these 
traded down the bay, employed in the local com.merce 
between Providence, Newport, and the Narragansett 
country. 

Reference has been made to the great Providence fire 
during the Indian troubles, near the end of Williams's 
life. At that time fifty houses in the northern part of 
the town were destroyed ; it is said that only one of the 
very oldest houses survived. Warwick at this time also 
suffered great loss, cattle being stolen and crops dam- 
aged so that the settlers found themselves absolutely 
destitute. Many of them fled for safety to hardly less 
exposed settlements, some to Aquidneck, where the in- 
habitants of Newport and Portsmouth received them 
with the greatest hospitality. The "house of the four 
chimneys" on Brenton's Neck was an asylum for many 



From Providence to Cowesett 27 

of the destitute refugees, who had finally shared in the 
retribution so long Invited by Massachusetts. 

Among the early legends of Providence there are 
several connected with the direful conflasfration. 

Upon the river bank, at Kettle Point, not far from 
the little city, there lived a man named Lewis, who 
did something of a freight business about the bay. 
Lewis had for a neighbour an hidian called Ouanto, 
and between these two there had grown up a mutual 
respect and liking. It may be that the red-skin in his 
wigwam and the white man in his cabin did not dis- 
cover in each other much difference either in habits or 
aims of life. They probably both lived on very inti- 
mate terms with nature, and wrested a living from 
the wilderness by the exercise of similar courage and 
capacity. 

At that time when the relations between aborigi- 
nes and settlers were at a tension, and the men of the 
forest and the men of the settlement glowered at each 
other across the stockades, Lewis got ready his sloop to 
go to Nev/port. He made light of the fears of his 
countrymen — this storm, he was sure, would pass by 
as others had done, and Williams's palaver with the 
sachems would be successful in averting danger, as it 
always had been. 

As Lewis was about starting, his friend Ouanto came 
to him and asked a favour. There were his two young 
children ; would his white brother take them on his boat 
to Aquidneck, where their grandmother lived, and give 



28 Narragansett Bay 

them into her keeping so that they might remain in 
safety till peace was assured. The errand was under- 
taken and successfully accomplished. Ouanto's child- 
ren were handed over to the old squaw and Lewis was 
returning to Providence when he heard the dreadful 
news of the Indian attack. 

Filled with consternation for his own family, the 
master of the sloop made what speed he could to Kettle 
Point and was rejoiced to hnd his wife and children 
still unharmed, though in imminent peril. Hurrying 
them on board his boat, he set sail immediately for 
Newport, the glare of the burning village of Providence 
behind him furnishing a sufficient incentive to haste. 
The first few miles of the journey were accomplished 
without interruption, and Lewis began to hope that he 
might escape. His wife, worn out with her anxiety, 
was asleep in the little cabin, with her children besides 
her. Just as the sloop was gliding like a ghost past 
Warwick Neck, a canoe shot out of the shadow and a 
hooked line was thrown into the rigging. 

"Where are Ouanto's children?" came the voice of 
an Indian from the canoe. 

Under the influence of fear Lewis lied. "They are 
here, safe in my sloop." 

The canoe was hauled close to the stern of the white 
man's boat. " Hand Ouanto's children over to us," 
came the command. 

Not daring to acknowledge his falsehood, and terri- 
fied lest the savages should board his craft and put 



From Providence to Cowesett 



29 



them all to the tomahawk, Lewis yielded to the reit- 
erated command and going into the cabin took up his 
unconscious children. Mrs. Lewis, sleeping heavily, had 
not heard the dialogfue between her husband and the 
men in the canoe : she half roused when he took the 




THE CANOE WAS HAULED UNDER THE STERN OF THE WHllE MAN S BOAT 

children from her, but he quieted her with a word, and 
delivered the youngsters to the Indians. 

As the canoe parted company with the sloop Lewis 
called out : " I have made a mistake and have given you 
my own children. Ouanto's are here with me." At that 
moment a puff of wind fortunately filled his sails and 
he escaped, cherishing, as an offset to his fear, the hope 
that Quanto's children might be hostages for the safety 



30 Narragansett Bay 

of his own. What Lewis's wife said when he confessed 
his cowardice or craftiness we have no way of knowing, 
but imagination pictures a scene that must have been 
beyond description, nor do we beHeve that his Hfe for 
the next few days was an enviable one. 

In the end the affair turned out much better than 
might have been expected, for the white man's Httle 
ones were held in captivity only till the safety of the 
Indian's brood had been assured. It seems that 
Ouanto had been killed in the fight at Providence, and 
the Indians in the canoe were under the leadership of a 
brother warrior, who had attempted, in the manner 
described, to save the offspring of his friend. 

Opposite Kettle Point, and a short distance east of 
Roger Williams Park (now a place of public resort) the 
Continentals in 1775-6, built a fort upon the high bluff 
that crowns Field Point. The earth-works can still be 
seen from the railroad, and, in the days of short-range 
guns, with those upon the eastern shore, formed an 
effectual protection to the city. Just below these 
points, which are to the harbour what the neck is to a 
bottle, lies a little island, the site for a beacon that 
bears the suofcrestive name of Starvesfoat Island. The 
mind of man probably never conceived a more sugges- 
tive synonym for barrenness. 

The shores of Providence River are dotted with 
villages and private estates, and among them they 
harbour a goodly number of local traditions, bits of his- 
tory or of romance. From Pawtucket down the whole 







\ -'^ 






L1^- 



V 



THE SHORES OF PROVIDENCE RIVER 



31 



From Providence to Cowesett ss 

stretch of Warwick shore there is not a bay or a Httle 
cape that has not been the scene of some exciting ad- 
venture in colonial days, either when the Indians were 
upon the war-path, or during the still more unsettled 
time when British revenue boats were poking into 
every nook and corner for contraband goods. 

Warren, one of the most delightful as well as import- 
ant of the older towns, lies between Barrineton and 
Bristol, upon a river of its own name. With Bristol it 
shared the troublesome visits of British troops in the 
Revolution, and furnished its quota of men for the Con- 
tinental army. 

The greatest event that has ever distinguished any 
part of the Providence River, was the burning of the 
Gaspee, on Nanquit Point, nearly opposite Barrington. 
This occurrence was of such singular interest that I 
have given to it, and the incidents that preceded it, a 
separate chapter. 

From Warwick we take another excursion into the 
earliest history of the colony. When that much mis- 
understood man, Samuel Gorton, headed the third party 
of those who had found Massachusetts too warm for 
them, he came first to Providence, as Coddington and 
his companions had done ; but he and Roger Williams 
could not agree then, nor ever fully. Gorton absolutely 
denied the right of any man, or body of men, to govern 
unless they were commissioned by king or parliament, 
and as Williams held no such commission his visitor did 
much to embarrass him. At last Gorton, with eleven 



3 



34 Narragansett Bay 

companions, bought Shawomet from the Indians, and at 
once commenced to build a blockhouse there. 

As Massachusetts had cast covetous eyes upon that 
very strip of shore, it followed that Gorton was besieged 
in his strong house, and having been captured was 
taken in irons to Boston, to be tried for heresy. In this 



s^ssats:. 




WARWICK NECK, AT THE ENTKAN'CE TO COWESETT BAY 

case the sentiment of the people was so strongly ex- 
pressed that the elders did not dare to proceed to extreme 
lengths against Gorton and his friends, but banished 
them from Massachusetts, whence they returned to 
Rhode Island. 

It should be said that before settling upon Shawomet 
for the first time, the founder of Warwick had been 
whipped publicly at Aquidneck, as a turbulent fellow; 



PYom Providence to Cowesett 35 

but when he returned the second time he was received 
with the sympathy which generous natures afford to 
misfortune. Not going at once to Warwick, he was 
elected to a magistracy in Newport, but when WilHams 
had obtained the first charter or patent, which in Gor- 
ton's eyes legaHsed the government of the colony, he 
commenced to rebuild Warwick, which in course of time 
became the third place in importance in Rhode Island. 
The earliest organisation of the General Court included 
Providence, Newport, Portsmouth, and Warwick. 

When Coddington tried to usurp the rights of the 
people of Newport, and obtained a separate patent for 
himself as o^overnor of that settlement. Providence and 
Warwick stood tooether and urjjed Williams to eo to 
England to secure a confirmation of their charter. To 
supply himself with funds for this expedition, Williams 
sold his trading house, impoverishing himself for the 
public good. 

Brown University was actually born at Warwick, the 
purpose of the establishment being to give to Baptist 
youth those educational advantages which were enjoyed 
by the people of other denominations. It was known 
as the Rhode Island College, and its constitution re- 
quired that the president should be a Baptist. In a 
short time it was removed to Providei.ce and located 
upon the site it now occupies. 

The full story of Warwick would be a political history 
of Rhode Island, of which the reader will pardon the 
omission. The township is the most Important In Kent 



36 Narragansett Bay 

County, the value of its realty and the personal property 
held there exceeding East and West Greenwich and 
Coventry combined. Some of its legends, and the more 
romantic incidents connected with its story, will be 
touched upon in connection with East Greenwich and 
the region about Cowesett Bay. 

During those years when Newport and the lower 
islands were in the hands of the British foe, and the 
traders from the upper part of the bay were not only 
doing all in their power to render the blockade ineffect- 
ual, but were also making what provisions they could 
for defence, a battery was built near the southern end of 
Warwick Neck, not far from where the lighthouse now 
stands. It commanded the entrance to Cowesett Bay. 
This work was erected during the early part of the inva- 
sion, and while the militia were ordered out to make what 
defence they might, the women and children were advised 
to flee to inland towns, where at least they would be re- 
moved from immediate danger. There seems, how- 
ever, to have been no very general exodus. It was at that 
time that the seven hundred troops constituting Rhode 
Island's army were encamped at Bristol and Tiverton. 

Samuel Gorton and his associates in 1641, before 
going to Shawomet, settled in Pawtuxet, on land pur- 
chased of Robert Cole. Arnold, one of Williams's com- 
panions, and the progenitor of the numerous Arnolds of 
Rhode Island, strenuously opposed this settlement, and 
his animosity had weight in inducing Gorton's with- 
drawal to Shawomet, in 1642-3. 



From Providence to Cowesett 



2>7 



The Royal patent, which included Shawomet, was 
granted through the influence of the Earl of Warwick, 
and in gratitude to him his name was given to the town- 
ship afterwards formed. That township includes a 



t "j> "* "-»»-„ ^ s 




SAMUEL Gorton's leather breeches, 

NOW IN possession OF MRS. SAM CLARKE 



number of villages, those of Warwick and Apponaug 
being among the oldest. Samuel Gorton lived about 
a mile from the present village of Apponaug, on the 
road leading to the summer-excursion resort of Rocky 
Point. Nothing to-day remains of the pioneer's house 



38 Narragansett Bay 

but one piece of wood that was cut from a rafter at the 
time that the building was demoHshed, and that after- 
wards did service as a gate-post for several years. I 
found this relic, along with Gorton's leather breeches, 
table, spinning-wheel, and other venerable treasures, in 
the possession of Mrs. Sam Clarke, a lineal descendant 
of Samuel Gorton. This lady, now living in East 
Greenwich, has inherited, along with many priceless 
antiques, a loyal spirit of veneration for the memories 
and the household impedimenta of her forbears. 

At old Warwick village nothing remains but a strag- 
gling, country community, living in a place that retains 
but the ghost of its former dignity and importance. At 
the crossroads stands a decrepit old house that wears 
the tags and tatters of old-time royalty upon a frame, the 
symmetry of which even neglect and dirt cannot en- 
tirely destroy. This is the melancholy ruin of the 
old Assembly house, a reminder of the time when old 
Warwick was one of the three capitals of the colony, 
but now a squalid spectre, standing under immemorial 
elms. In shape, this building is almost a cube, but 
relieved by the overhang of the roof upon all four 
sides, the cornice being supported by small and grace- 
ful brackets. At the front door there is a unique porch, 
the cap of which is concave and rests upon brackets 
of the same shape as those above, but much larger. Over 
the door some thoughtful person has placed the date 
of the erection of this old house — 1726. Its glory de- 
parted, the voices of legislators no longer heard in its 




OLD CHURCH AT APPONAUG 



39 



From Providence to Cowesett 41 

chambers, the dignified, gracious mansion has become a 
tenement for foreigners, the grime of whose unwashed 
hands has discolored the doorposts, and the brilHant 
hues of whose scanty wardrobes enHven the clothes-Hne 
perspective at the rear. 

Diagonally across the street from the old Assembly 
house is a mansion of red brick, once a beautiful co- 
lonial dwelling, but now fallen and degraded. Near 
these landmarks stands another, also eoine to ruin. It 
is the old Baptist church of Warwick, which was re- 
moved to its present site some years ago, and has since 
been used as a store or warehouse. 

With the decay of old Warwick village a newer and 
livelier centre has sprung up on Warwick Neck, which, 
from its proximity to the water, makes a pleasant place 
of residence, and is becoming a popular resort in the 
summer months. The most prominent landmark on 
the Neck, is a stone tower built by Senator Aldrich 
upon his estate, and visible from almost every high hill 
in Rhode Island. 

Apponaug is now the metropolis of Warwick town- 
ship, and boasts a very substantial town hall and court 
house. It is neither a very populous nor a very active 
centre, but it cherishes some interesting and distinctive 
features, and points with pride to several distinguished 
sons. 

The old Pequot trail, that was a highway for the sav- 
ages before King Philip's day, is still the highway for 
modern palefaces, and trembles every hour of the day 



42 Narragansett Bay 

under the rush of the trolley, as it comes up from East 
Greenwich. Just before reaching the Corners or inter- 
section of the two main streets in Apponaug, the trail 
turns sharply to the east and parallels the highway about 
two rods to the south. It is still at this point clearly 
visible. Near by, at the shore, there may be found a 
deep shell-bed several hundred feet in extent, which 
was one of the recognised "mints" for the Indian 
manufacture of " peage," or wampum, which was made 
from the blue part of the small clam shells. 

At a distance of about two miles from Apponaug, in 
a westerly direction, there is a curious boulder, so held 
in the hollow of its stony bed that it can be rocked with- 
out overturning. It makes a deep bell-like sound that 
could formerly be heard for a considerable distance. 
This rocking stone was used by the Indians as a signal 
or alarm, and is known to people of the neighbourhood 
as Drum Rock. It is hard to find, being hidden among 
thick bushes, and one seeking it requires a guide. 

When King Philip came through Apponaug on one 
of his sudden marauding expeditions, during the great 
Indian war, he burned every house in the place but one, 
and that has since been destroyed. 

Several Indian burial grounds have been discovered 
in this vicinity. In these skeletons have been repeatedly 
found, always in a sitting posture, after the Narragansett 
mode of burial. One of these skeletons held in its bony 
hands a quantity of wampum, while upon each of the 
fingers of another was a brass ring marked with a cross. 



From Providence to Cowesett 45 

One of the sachems, whose name appears upon the 
earHest deed to Warwick Neck, played fast and loose 
with Indians and settlers in turn, coquetting with the 
greedy Puritans of Massachusetts, and refusing to leave 
his pleasant domain. He showed a warm appreciation 
of the white man's firewater, till at last he had sunk to 
the condition of a mere sot, despised by the settlers and 
abandoned by his own race. When Philip's war com- 
menced this drunkard forsook his cups and re-asserted 
his leadership. Gathering his people once more, he led 
them manfully, till he fell with the remnant of Philip's 
brave thouofh cruel allies. 

There are later memories of Apponaug and its vicinity 
that are of greater interest than the tales of the red 
men. Among its several little graveyards are scattered 
the modest monuments of men who have served their 
country in the piping times of peace, as well as in every 
war from the time of King Philip to the day of Grant 
and Lee. Here lie the kinsmen of "Chinese Treaty" 
Burlingame, the fighting clan of Greene, and the tribes 
of Clarke and Arnold. Here are many graves deco- 
rated with Hags, as evidence that the many patriotic 
sons of Apponaug who fell in the Civil War are not 
forgotten, nor their ashes neglected. 

In Apponaug there is, near the intersection of the 
main streets, an old house that is marked with a plate 
that proclaims it the "Greene Memorial." It was the 
home of Silas Greene and the birthplace of General 
Francis Greene, who lived to be the senior alumnus of 



r 



46 Narragansett Bay 

West Point, and whose name is bright upon the roster 
of Gettysburg. Former Pohce Commissioner Greene of 
New York is also of that family, a native of Apponaug, 
and was born, I am told, in the old house. 

Of the Greene family and others of that section of 
country, I shall have more to say in the chapter includ- 
ing East Greenwich and its neighbourhood, with which 
this book will close. From the pleasant highways and 
byways of Warwick and Apponaug, from the quietness, 
the quaintness, the glamour of their old associations 
and the beauty of their natural surroundings, one 
cannot but turn with deep reluctance. 



Chapter III 

The Ambit of the Bay 

" '^ '^ 7 E can crow loud enough," the Rhode Island 

\ /\ / man says, "if we do have to go outside 

T T the State to get room to flap our wings." 

A small body of land, mostly intersected by water, is 
Rhode Island. The windings and ramifications of Nar- 
ragansett Bay form a collection of capes, estuaries, inlets, 
and other divisions of land and water, apparently designed 
to present within narrow compass an object lesson in 
primary geography. The State has a smaller area and 
a lonofer shore line than almost any other in the Union. 
It lies folded in the all-embracing arms of the sea, and 
smiles contentedly back at the sky, a thing of beauty to 
one who is fortunate enough to find an elevation from 
which to view it, and a joy forever to the artist or the 
antiquary. 

When Columbus sailed westward and discovered out- 
lying islands upon the coast of America he achieved 
lasting and deserved fame, though it occurs to the 
thoughtful to enquire whether, as Mark Twain inti- 
mated concerning the landing of the Pilgrim fathers, it 
would not have been a more astonishing feat to have 

47 



48 Narragansett Bay 

missed them : but to the Norsemen, Verrazani, or who- 
ever discovered Narragansett Bay and grounded the 
prows of their boats on the pebbly shores of Seakonnet 
and Kickamuet, the world owes an unpaid debt. 

"This region," wrote Verrazani, "is situated in the parallel of 
Rome, being 41 deg- 40 minutes of north latitude, but much colder 
from accidental circumstances and not by nature as I shall here- 
after explain to your Majesty, and confine myself at present to the 
description of its local situation. It looks towards the south, on 
which side the harbour is half a league broad : afterwards, upon 
entering it, the extent between the coast and the north is twelve 
leagues and then enlarging itself it becomes a very large bay, twenty 
leagues in circumference, in which are five small islands, of great 
fertility and beauty, covered with large and lofty trees. Among 
these islands any fleet, however large, might ride safely without fear 
of tempest or other dangers. Turning towards the south at the 
entrance to the harbour, on both sides, there are pleasant hills and 
many streams of clear water, which flow down to the sea. In the 
midst of the entrance there is a rock of freestone, formed by nature 
and very suitable for the construction of any kind of machine or 
bulwarks for the defence of the harbour." 

This account, though sometimes questioned, seems 
to me clearly to point to Narragansett Bay, even with- 
out the much-discussed Verrazani map, which in fact 
supports it. The authenticity of both the map and 
the report is generally accepted by scholars, and the 
efforts made by several writers to discredit them have 
not been successful. 

All of the evidence at hand clearly points to the fact 
that the shores and islands of this unsurpassed body of 
water were in past times much more densely wooded 
than they are at present. From the groves that remain 





P z 



c :; 



5 v^ 



The Ambit of the Bay 51 

we may judge of the beauty of those that have been 
removed. 

One striking error in Verrazani's report is that wliich 
pictures the bay as free from the danger of tempests, a 
place where fleets may ride in safety from any danger. 

That it is not always placid those who live on its 
shores know full well. At times a persistent storm 
almost prohibits traffic, and those of the inhabitants who 
live near the water's eds^e are fain to batten hatches, or, 
what is equivalent, to secure doors and windows on the 
windward side of their houses, and wait for the tempest 
to blow itself out. 

In this connection, I am tempted to quote a letter 
recently written by a boy of fifteen, after taking 
the trip from Providence to New York upon one of 
the Sound steamers. Here is a paragraph from his 
description. 

" W'e did not get started till 6 p.m. and it looked stormy and the 
hurricane signals were up. When we got out beyond Newport it 
was roughs as rough as I saw it once going to Bermuda, but it was 
blowing harder than I have ever seen it blow before, so hard indeed 
that you had to hold on to something to keep from going overboard. 
It was so rough that every sea came as high as the saloon deck and 
would run along the sides. The captain did not seem to think that 
she could weather Point Judith, so we turned around and anchored 
off Dutch Island, exactly 9 p.m. Then I turned in, but was awakened 
about 12 by the starting of the engines. It was (piite rough and 
even I was sick the second time we tried it. AVe reached New York 
at \2 the next day." 

To sail among the islands and e.xplore the arms and 
tributaries of Narragansett is as fascinating a pastime 



52 Narragansett Bay 

as an inshore sailor can desire. I recall with pleasure 
many such little voyages, made in all sorts of weather 
and under all conditions of lisfht and darkness, but with 
never an hour to regret. The long stretches of open 
water give ample sea-room for small sailboats, and the 
winding channels that must be picked out by chart and 
buoy, by range and beacon, call for the exercise of just 
those faculties that contribute to the keenest physical 
enjoyment. 

One of the delightful features of the bay is its anima- 
tion. Freighters, yachts, excursion steamers, vessels 
belonging to Uncle Sam's navy, sailboats, and launches 
appear and disappear around the numerous islands and 
capes. They pass in the narrow channels with much 
blowing and shrilling of whistles, for, great craft or small, 
they are all as careful as hidalgos about the observances 
of the highway — "the rules of the road." Your sailor 
is now about the only true conservative in the world. 
His vocabulary is an inheritance from Hawkins and 
Drake, and his punctilio would do no discredit to the 
court of Neptune. Even the coal barges en route for 
Fall River or Providence respect the rights of others 
or stand with assurance upon their own. 

Besides the real sailors, there are numberless beach- 
combers and shoal-water fishermen, who wade the shal- 
lows at low water, " treading " Ouahaug. They are 
amphibious, and are even said to be web-footed. 

Narrap^ansett is the home of the Ouahausf and the 
Quahaugger, otherwise clamdigger. The Indians, who 



The Ambit of the Bay 



53 



appreciated the large and luscious bivalve at its proper 
value, would have refused to affront it with a plebeian 
name of only four letters. They looked at the goodly 
shell, tipped with purple, and saw possibilities of wam- 
pum in it ; they tasted the salty morsel of marine manna 
with which Providence provided them each day, and 




FISH NETS AND BOATS 



they rolled their pious eyes to Heaven and reverently 
called the treasure Pofjuauhock. The Rhode Islander, 
catching the reverent s[)irit of the Indian, if not his 
exact pronunciation, adheres to Ouahaug. In Con- 
necticut men go clamming, wliich is a nuich more 
prosaic occupation. 

The fishermen are ubi(|uitous. 'rh<-ir nets and tlicir 
boats are everywhere, the former making the navigation 



54 Narragansett Bay 

of many of the smaller inlets and rivers exceedingly- 
difficult. 

There are other fishermen than the " featherless 
bipeds" of the boats and the fish nets. Rather say 
there are guardian spirits, that through all this region 
hover in the air or dash into the water unhindered and 
unharmed, fearless of man, because they seem to know- 
that the State has taken them under the protection of 
its laws. Uncounted fish-hawks sweep across these 
waters, or occupy nests that consume almost as much 
raw buildinor material as the cottaQ^es of the human 
fishermen. Every very tall tree near the water seems 
to be pre-empted by these feathered aborigines, and if 
one is not averse to noise he may stick up a long pole 
with one or two cross-pieces nailed upon the top, and 
be pretty sure that before a season goes by there will 
be a structure upon it that looks like a composite of 
hay-rick and wood-pile. 

A favourite plan for inviting the fish-hawks to build 
is to put an old cart wheel on top of a pole. No well- 
constituted bird can withstand that inducement. Some- 
times an effort is made by the native Munchausen to 
persuade the unsophisticated stranger that these great 
birds carry the cart wheels to the tops of the poles them- 
selves and fit them on. Not lone a^o several ladies 
from the neighbourhood of Boston were quoting this as 
a remarkable instance of intelligence in animals. 

With a fair breeze the run down the bay from Cowe- 
sc^tt to Dutch Island Harbour takes little more than an 



The Ambit of the Bay 



55 



c^ c 



hour if one has a good catboat or "jib and mainsail." 
We dodge Patience and Pojack, Cah Pasture and De- 
spair, heading from buoy to buoy, and occasionally cut- 
ting a corner somewhat closf^r than strict prudence would 
counsel. Patience Island 
was the property of Roger 
Williams, to which he is 
said to have thought seri- 
ously of retiring when his 
dispute with Samuel Gor- 
ton was at its height. It 
is little more than a barren 
rock now, thoucrh origin- 
ally well wooded. Goose- 
berry, Despair, Round 
Rock, and several other 
rocks are satellites of 
Hope Island, between 
which and the west shore 
of Prudence runs a broad, 
deep channel. This was once guarded by British war 
vessels, between which the captors of General Prescott 
conducted their prisoner, undetected, on their way to 
Warwick. 

Coasting along the west side of Conanicut Island 
attention is attracted to "the park," as it is called, 
where well-shaded, modern cottages and green lawns 
suggest possibilities as yet undeveloped on most of the 
islands. 




FISH-IIAWK S NEST 



56 Narragansett Bay 

Between Dutch Island, a garrisoned Government post, 
and Conanicut, there is a ofood harbour. Through the 
western entrance a ferry runs, connecting Saunders- 
town. on the Narragansett shore, with Jamestown on 
Conanicut. The road from this ferry leads directly 
across Conanicut to a second one plying between 
Jamestown and Newport. That part of the Conanicut 
shore bordering upon Dutch Island harbour is rocky, 
almost treeless, and uncultivated, yet in that wonder- 
ful atmosphere far from unattractive. The village that 
straggles across the island, following the road from 
ferry to ferry, is well shaded and pleasant — another ob- 
ject lesson in tree-planting and garden-making, which 
perhaps will not alwa)s be lost upon the people of 
Rhode Island. 

There are a thousand home sites, as cheap as they 
are desirable, waitino- for tenants, though situated in 
one of the most salubrious climates In the world. I do 
not know any place where as great a result may be 
obtained by a little intelligent and scientific foresting 
as upon the islands of Narragansett Bay. Nature 
seems to have planned here a great sanitarium, where 
the clean breezes of the ocean, tempered by the great 
heat storage of the bay, promise immunity from half the 
ills to which human flesh is heir. For many years New- 
port has been a health resort, yet Newport has in that 
respect not one iota of advantage over Jamestown, or 
Conanicut Park, or Prudence Island. For a century 
and a quarter the State and the people have been blind 



The Ambit of the Bay 57 

to the advantages of this archipelago of sunshine and 
sak air. 

It is about an hour's sail from Dutch Island to Nar- 
ragansett Pier, with the long, low coast of Conanicut to 
port for half the distance. When the light on Beaver- 
tail is passed, the navigator realises that he has ex- 




LIGHT HOUSE ON DUTCH ISLAND 



changed the sheltered waters of the bay for the 
unsheltered margin of the x'\tlantic Ocean. 

The nearest neighbours on the eastern side are the 
Elizabeth Islands and Martha's Vineyard, and bc\ond 
them Portugal. The air is pure and strong, aiul the 
long rollers that break on the Narragansett shore have 
three thousand miles of water power to l)ack them : 
yet I have seen the open roadstead in front of Narra- 
gansett Pier as still as a mill-poiul, aiui. like the swans 



58 Narragansett Bay 

upon St. Mary's lake, the sailboats float double, sail 
and shadow. Lying at anchor between the long pier 
and the coal wharves, when the sky behind the town is 
hung with purple and gold, and the lights have begun 
to perforate the silhouetted belt of buildings on shore, 
there is a lon^ unbroken horizon to eastward, where a 
ship lies between sea and sky, like a message on the 
lips of night. 

If you like a racy adventure with a handful of work 
between sheet and tiller, leave Narragansett Pier in a 
spanking breeze and make for Newport, keeping Bren- 
ton's Reef to starboard. The Reef was the scene of 
many a disaster, till the light-ship, that has figured so 
often as a starting-point in the great yacht races, was 
anchored over its dangerous shoals. 

Sailing into Newport we pass the famous Dumplings, 
that singular formation of knob-like hillocks, upon a 
projecting member of which a venerable round fort 
assumed for many years all the dignity of an important 
military work. At present the old defences are more 
picturesque than terrible, and whatever warlike sug- 
gestion this particular one may once have offered is 
now usurped by more modern engineering devices in 
the vicinity. 

Beyond the Dumplings, on the opposite side of the 
channel. Fort Adams occupies the end of the point of 
land that forms the southern boundary of Newport 
Harbour and also encloses the little bay known as 
Brenton's Cove. The water-battery is a square, massive 




u 



The Ambit of the Bay 6 1 

pile of masonry, that would have been very effective in 
opposition to the naval armament of half a century 
ago, but which would crumble at the touch of an im- 
proved projectile, impelled from a modern gun. 

The earth-works that crown the little hill above the 
battery, while they do not make as pretentious a showing 
from the water side, are the real defences of the harbour. 

Fort Adams has stood for near!\- a century, and was 
built during the John Adams administration, by Gen- 
eral Totten. Fort Dumpling is a relic of the same 
period. Fortress Monroe was brilt by the French v.n- 
crineer, Bernard, at about the time that Totten was at 
work on Fort Adams. 

Goat Island, lying low in the middle of the harbour, 
was fortified in colonial times. Colonel Romer sug- 
gested this work, during the reign of King William. 
There were twelve cannon in the fort on the island, in 
the middle of the eighteenth century, but these were 
removed early in 1775. The British took possession of 
Goat Island when they entered Newport. Fort Wol- 
cott was constructed at a later date, under the direction 
of Major L'Enfant, engineer of West Point. The old 
fort is flanked by the quarters of officers connected 
with the torpedo station there. Opposite the island, 
close inshore, is the well-knowm Lime Rock, with its 
light house, and its association with th(; name of Ida 
Lewis, the heroine of many rescues. 

The frequent islands and rocks are scattered broad- 
cast through this part of the bay, and have each 



62 



Narragansett Bay 



some claim to distinction. Between them moves an 
apparently endless chain of vessels of every sort and 
size. A great group of black torpedo-boats and de- 
stroyers, belching black smoke, lie like a pack of 
hounds in leash, waiting for the signal to be off ; near 
them rides a white-hulled war vessel, its bright metal 




FORT ADAMS, GUARDING NEWPORT HARBOUR 

gleaming in the sun ; a squadron of great, sea-going 
yachts swim with their noses towards the tidal current, 
for all the world like a school of great fish, between 
which the smaller boats dart to and fro, in and out, like 
minnows. Sailboats and launches find their way amid 
this press with what seems like a marvellous immunity 
from harm, and add a touch of life to this panorama of 
wonderful beauty. 



The Ambit of the Bay 



63 



Coaster's Harbour Island, north of Goat Island, and 
Rose Island, to the westward of the channel that sepa- 
rates the two laro-er ones, have each their share of 
history or tradition. One of tlu; institutions of New- 
port Harbour is the war collet4;e, which is not at all a 
college according- to the ordinary acceptation of the 




bishop's rock, in NKWIOKT lIARIlOfK 



term, but a group of buildInL;s in which successive com- 
I)anies of naval officers ^Ji^athcr. under the direction and 
with the authority of the Ciovernnient, for mutual aid in 
the development of naval science. There the great war 
games, in which naval battles arc fought on i)ai><'r. ac- 
cording to rules evolved from the experienc<- of many 
years, are played with all the seriousness that would 



64 Narragansett Bay 

govern the evolutions of hostile fleets upon the ocean. 
Papers upon each point of naval science are read and 
discussed, and the latest destructive and defensive ap- 
pliances studied. 

The fashion, gaiety, and beauty of Newport can never 
be said to wane ; the tide of its prosperity and popular- 
ity never ebbs ; but there are times when every effect of 
opulence is heightened and its brilliancy becomes splen- 
dour. At such times the resources of almost incalculable 
wealth are drawn upon to furnish pageants that for mag- 
nificence outvie the historic efforts of imperial power. 
The Field of the Cloth of Gold impoverished the nobles 
of two kingdoms and sent many a dashing blade in the 
retinue of Francis I. or Henry VIII. into indigent re. 
tirement, but the paladins who meet in a modern tour- 
ney under the favourable skies of Aquidneck can support 
the tremendous charges of a life that is strenuous even 
in its frivolity and still live to blaze another day. 

There is no event in the Newport calendar that quite 
equals in brilliancy the rendezvous of the New York 
Yacht Club, when its annual cruise culminates in that 
hospitable haven of the inordinately rich. 

At any time the display of lights that at night are 
stationary along the wharves or upon the vessels at 
anchor, or dart to and fro, meteor-like, amid more stable 
constellations, affords a spectacle of unusual attractive- 
ness ; but when the vessels are multiplied and the lights 
increased a thousand-fold ; when, instead of hulls that 
adorn the bosom of the harbour, there is a continuous 



^4 



1 <::. 






I 

I 






The Ambit of the Bay 67 

blaze of kaleidoscopic radiance, from a countless multi- 
tude of craft, that lie so close that it seems as though 
the harbour had disappeared, then one sees the water 
side of Newport in its supreme glory. 

There is something barbaric about the display. Usu- 
ally twice during the cruise the yachts stop here, and 
each year the ingenuity of a thousand people is taxed to 
devise new effects in illumination, new extravagance in 
pageantry. The shore decorations, while wonderfully 
effective and even splendid, are of secondary interest 
compared with the spectacular display that glorifies the 
basin. There appears no limit, no definition, to a con- 
course of luminaries that suggest the ransacking of 
Golcondas and Kimberlys without end. 

The steamboats passing to o'r from the upper waters 
of Narragansett Bay must pick their way, inch by inch, 
through lanes of light, between the crowded hulls that 
block the channel. Sometimes the glare from one of 
the numerous search-lights, that play like huge comets 
over the scene, falls upon a pilot-house, and the frantic 
profanity of the steamer's whistle informs the world, 
in no measured tones, what the pilot thinks on the 
subject. 

Those search-lights, thrown from Gowrnmcnt ncsscIs 
or from private yachts, show here and there the outline 
of hulls and spars that are otherwise only defined by 
the tracery of innumerable jewels. I^nierald and topaz, 
ruby and amethyst, cross and recross in unentling lines, 
like the meshes of a flaming net. There a great )acht 



68 Narragansett Bay 

rides at her anchor, ablaze with parti-coloured lights 
even to the water's edge ; another, near at hand, carries 
the emerald panoply of the most gallant Challenger that 
ever contested for the America's cup. A little farther, 
and some tall schooner appears in a mantle of garnet 
light that ripples from stem to stern, from water-line to 
deck, that leaps up the shrouds and rigging like fire and 
bathes the spars in flame, that films the sinuous surface 
of the water with a conflagration. A man-of-war has 
draped her colours aloft, where they are illuminated ; but 
before and beyond this and every other spectacle, for 
exalted sentiment, the flag over Fort Adams flies alone 
in the steady white beam of a search-light. 

In and out of this glorious panorama of light and 
beauty a procession of small yachts and launches, bear- 
ing a mirthful and tumultuous company, winds in a 
bewildering reel that the eye wearies in following. 

On the morrow — Presto ! All is changed. By some 
touch of magic the thronging yachts are restored to 
their every-day appearance and are preparing to leave 
their moorings. The launches have been called in, day- 
light has taken the place of the painted night lights, and 
the romance and mystery of that fleet have flown with 
darkness. 

The day, however, has brought new marvels, — the 
charm of trim bows, of white decks, of exquisite hous- 
ings and resplendent brasses, of innumerable well-rigged 
men and incomparable women. The sunlight touches 
it all, defines the shadows of snowy sails and awnings. 



The Ambit of the Bay 69 

sparkles upon the surface of the blue water, sharpens 
the outlines of masts and rigging, flashes from reflect- 
ing surfaces, glorifies even the smoke that begins to 
creep from a myriad funnels. 

In a little while the joyous procession takes up its 
journey again. Past the Dumplings the yachts go, the 




SANDY POINT LIGHTHOUSE 



distance increasing, the mass less and less compact, 
beyond Whale Rock and Brenton's Reef, till at last 
they stretch away eastward towards Buzzard's Bay, like 
a flock of majestic sea-birds. 

Cruising on the bay is not always an exciting pas- 
time, though never without a peculiar charm. 

One summer day I sat with four other patient people 



70 Narragansett Bay 

in the cockpit of a little sloop and awaited the outcome 
of a race with a lobster-pot. It was off Prudence Island 
on the eastern coast, not far from the Sandy Point light- 
house. The low-lying land before us lay like a huge 
leviathan that had come to the surface to bask in the 
August sun. Few trees worthy of the name were in 
sieht, but the undulatinor back of leviathan was covered 
with a wild tangle of bushes and vines, with here a 
fisherman's cabin and there a web of drying nets to 
give human interest to the view. On the opposite 
side of the channel lay Portsmouth, upon Aquidneck, 
a prosperous and fertile-looking country, with farm- 
houses, groves of trees, summer residences, boat-houses, 
and — a characteristic feature in Rhode Island landscape 
— windmills. To the north-east, the way we had come, 
lay Bristol Ferry, with Mount Hope beyond it and Fall 
River in the far distance. South we looked towards 
Newport and the ocean, and speculated upon the mo- 
tion of a tow of coal barges that loomed laro-e in the 
middle-ground. Then past the shore of Prudence, to 
the north-west, there was a far-away prospect of the 
Providence River with Bristol for the centre of the 
picture. 

It was a rare place to be becalmed, if becalmed one 
must be, but when other interests flagged or became 
stale, attention was still active regarding the lobster- 
pot. The buoy that marked its location swung north- 
ward with the tide, while we were trying to go in the 
opposite direction, impelled by the gentlest zephyr that 



The Ambit of the Bay 71 

ever fanned a summer sea. Little cat's-paws played on 
our sails and roused hopes that the lobster-pot derided. 
Hour after hour we tried vainly to pass that bit of 
painted wood and at last, to our deep chagrin, were 
obliged to acknowledo^e defeat. 

Usine the oars in the skiff in default of a breeze 
we brought the little yacht inshore and anchoring there 
made a landing. It is not easy to imagine the six 
miles of the island's almost barren surface covered with 
a forest of trees as luxuriant as any of those that adorn 
the slopes of Aquidneck or the mainland, but such 
we are told was once the case. When Roger Williams 
bought it from the Indians for himself and John Win- 
throp it was an attractive and desirable spot and so 
it remained for many years, till the War of the Revolu- 
tion wrecked it, as it did many other pleasant proper- 
ties. At that time it had several owners, one of them 
being the last Colonial Governor, Joseph Wanton, who 
with his brother William owned eight hundred out of 
its three thousand acres. This property was confiscated 
after the war as was other Tory property in the State. 
Between the departure of Wanton and the confiscation 
of Prudence Island under the new government, a sad 
change took place. During the greater part of the war 
the British fleet, or some part of it, lay anchored close 
at hand, and the maintenance of these vessels and of 
the troops stationed on the south end of the island 
necessitated the destruction of nearly all the beauti- 
ful and valuable timber to provide fuel. It was a 



72 Narragansett Bay 

repetition of the devastation that made a large part of 
Manhattan Island practically a desert, during the same 
period. In New York happily the denudation was re- 
paired by the planting of new trees and the soil of the 
island was preserved ; but upon Prudence Island barren- 
ness succeeded fertility and storms completed the ruin 
that the axes of the British commenced. It is a well- 
known fact that large tracts of land in various parts 
of the earth have been at one time covered with ver- 
dure, and subject to frequent rainfalls, where now are 
only arid deserts This is the case with extensive areas 
upon the Danish peninsular or in Germany, or along 
the Danube — vast barren fields, hundreds of miles in 
extent, over which the rolling sand dunes shift their 
mammoth bulk with every storm. 

Upon Prudence Island there are bare acres of rock in 
places where within the memory of man there was a 
sufificient accumulation of soil for agricultural purposes. 
Some time ago the owner of a farm there noticed a 
place, only a few feet in extent, where a violent wind 
had bitten into the turf, exposing the rock beneath. 
He ordered his overseer to put a load or two of sea- 
weed over the spot, this being the approved method of 
safeguarding such spots against further enlargement. 
The order was for some reason neglected and the next 
storm tore out several acres of soil, cutting clean to the 
bed, and depositing a new bar near by in the bay. This 
will perhaps convey some idea of the way that the wind 
can blow when it chooses to blow in Narragansett Bay. 



The Ambit of the Bay 75 

A year or two ago the people who were out in sail- 
ing boats or steamers were mightily disturbed by the 
appearance of a water-spout that started on a mad and 
devastating career up the bay, but came to grief on one 
of the numerous islands. 

One of the present owners of Prudence was mur- 
muring maledictions against his possessions there, 
when a remonstrance ventured by the writer was met 
with the trenchant reply : " If you owned Prudence, you 
would cuss it too." 

Nevertheless there are residents who not only do not 
condemn the island, but consider it one of the most 
beautiful and desirable localities near the New England 
coast. For outlook and climate it is certainly wonder- 
fully favoured, and the application of a little scientific 
forestry would make it an Eden. 

Once upon a time there was an attempt made to found a 
sort of principality with an independent government upon 
Prudence Island. In that little Utopia where theories 
and ideals might be put to the test without interference, 
one might imagine that a man of the right sort could run 
a problem factory to heart's content, but in the case re- 
ferred to an unsympathetic and practical government de- 
clined to be a party to the accomplishment of the scheme. 

Members of the Herreshoff family, of Bristol, now 
own about twelve hundred acres on the island, and they 
and others have given some attention to its cultivation ; 
but nothing can ever restore its beauty or insure its 
productiveness till it is systematically reforested. 



76 Narragansett Bay 

Having secured a sketch of the Bristol Ferry from an 
elevation near the shore, we re-embarked, to find that 
the wind was freshening a little and the boat was soon 
out of the doldrums and away from the lobster-pot. 
The sun was low in the west as we headed for the 
Ferry and all up and down the bay there was a glorious, 



UPPER END OF AQUIDNECK (RHODE ISLAND) 

sparkling, all-enveloping atmosphere that bathed the 
shore to the eastward and threw its transfitrurinor charm 
over the bare slopes of Prudence. 

The light that never was on sea or land presents a 
vague idea that sometimes pleases the imagination ; but 
the afternoon light, the real, abundant, vivid, prismatic 
light that floods sea and land alike in a summer after- 
noon on Narragansett Bay, is quite sufficient and 
satisfying for ordinary mortals. 



The Ambit of the Bay ']'] 

Now, as we have nearly reached the head of the 
island, an interesting event repays us for the delay and 
weariness of the calm. A fieet of six lone, black, and 
aggressively ugly hulls round the point ahead of us 
and swing off towards the Rhode Island shore. Two 
and two they travel, leaving a trail of smoke from multi- 
tudinous funnels, a wake of foam that contrasts with their 
sombre bulk, and a series of swells that sets our boat 
rockinor as thouorh she would tear her stick out. 

Four torpedo-boats and two destroyers from the 
station at Newport are out for a practice cruise. They 
throb with the energy of engines that would propel an 
ocean liner and swing into position in their manoeuvres 
with the precision of a West Point squad. Then some- 
body recollects that the Dolphin, with the Secretary of 
War on board, is anchored in Newport Harbour and the 
reason for this warlike excursion into the peaceful 
waters of the upper bay is explained. 



Chapter IV 
The Charm of Old Bristol 

OLD BRISTOL, quiet now with a perpetual 
Sunday calm, sleeping under its elms with 
all the placid drowsiness of age, is a choice 
reminder of a day that is dead. The world knows it 
principally as the place where the Herreshoffs build 
their wonderful racing yachts, and the harbour is some- 
times full of their handiwork. Travellers on the Fall 
River boats, if they are up early enough, look sleepily 
at its wharves in the grey dawn of a summer morning, 
and few realise that this was once the fourth largest 
seaport in the country. Yet there was a time when 
something more important to the world at large than a 
fleet of racing toys sailed in and out of the bay and 
dropped or weighed their anchors there. 

Bristol has a common, in true New England fashion, 
and court-house, school, and church adorn it, accord- 
ing to the orthodox manner. Some of the houses are 
old and a few really ancient. Among them all, six 
thousand people manage to seclude themselves. 

He who would live in a dream of fair houses should 
go to Bristol and pitch his tent there ; or, better still, 

78 



The Charm of Old Bristol 79 

occupy one of the beautiful dwellings that a former 
generation has left for our instruction. To leave New 
York City, with its magnificent adaptations, its barbaric 
eclecticism, and lavish display of crass newness, and go 
to the little town of Bristol is like exchanging the be- 
wildering display of a department store for the simple 
congruities of a studio. 

I believe that there is nothing in New England to 
equal, and nothing in America to excel, the artistic ex- 
cellence of many old Bristol houses, and the number of 
these notable structures is so large in proportion to 
the size of the town that they dominate its character. 

This, to a limited extent, is true of Cambridge, of 
Charleston, of New Orleans, but no other town of 
equal or approximate beauty has remained as isolated 
as Bristol, and consequently Bristol alone has been 
almost unspoiled by the miscellaneous tags and patches 
of modern imitation. There are to be sure New Eng- 
land coast villages, built and inhabited by sailors and 
fishermen, that possess an antique charm, but these are 
curious and picturesque rather than beautiful, and can- 
not be classed with a town where a fortunate union 
of taste with wealth was celebrated before the de- 
velopment of an abnormal appetite for architectural 
poi-pouj^ri. 

Newport can exhibit no such architectural distinction 
as Bristol. What is old in Newport is intensely inter- 
esting, but not as a whole so artistically important, 
while its newness is like the newness of every wealth- 



8o Narragansett Bay 

haunted resort under the Stars and Stripes, It is Hke 
the newness of the American Metropohs, where no 
man has ever cared to build in harmony with his 
neiorhbour. 

Two explanations are required to account for Bristol ; 
the first will elucidate the mystery of its creation, and 
the second may throw light upon the hardly less mys- 
terious fact of its preservation. 

While the prosperity of Newport was greatly im- 
paired by the War of the Revolution and quite ruined 
by the troubles of 1812, Bristol was during the same 
period enjoying her golden age. The old merchants 
of Newport, though they lived in a manner becoming- 
prosperous ship-owners and traders of their day, and 
were housed in no mean fashion, did not compare in 
opulence, or in the gentle arts of extravagance, with 
the later princes of Bristol. More than that, while 
most New England towns were content with builders 
who dreamed of no radical departure from the familiar 
types that embodied convenience with simplicity, Bris- 
tol had at least one architect whose name should rank 
high in the annals of his profession. 

Then, when the architect had done his work and the 
wealthy owner had seen his last ship from India seas 
rot at her wharf ; when dollars were no longer as plenti- 
ful in the coffers as clams along shore, a gentle, ap- 
preciative fate decreed that the town should be treated 
like other art treasures and carefully enclosed in glass. 

Few were or are the people from the outside world 



The Charm of Old Bristol 83 

who find their way to this isolated spot, that was once 
so conspicuous, so prosperously set in the tide of en- 
terprise and success. With the loss of trade and the 
death of her prestige in commerce came also the loss of 
contact with the outer world : no longer did the roads 
lead to this little Rome : even the ferry that had for- 
merly run to the north end of Aquidneck was closed. 
Whoever would visit Bristol must do so by way of 
Providence, and until lately the inconveniences attend- 
ing this approach were enough to deter all but the most 
resolute. 

These conditions, which have been frequently de- 
plored, have really been the means of preserving the 
unique beauty of the place. Only once or twice they 
have been broken, and then for too brief a period for 
real harm to ensue. Nearly a generation ago James 
Fiske, Jr., known familiarly to the men of his day as 
|im Fiske, made Bristol a terminus for his steamship 
line, but this is an almost forgotten episode in local 
history. 

The name which more than any other deserves re- 
cognition for architectural triumphs achieved in Bristol, 
is that of Russell Warren. To his exquisite taste we 
owe that most enchanting of New England houses, the 
DeWolf-Colt mansion, the Norris house with its " am- 
plified cupola" and " Bristol parapet rail," and a score of 
others, justly celebrated among architects, but unap- 
preciated because unknown by the great public. 

There, on Hope Street, diagonally opposite each 



84 Narragansett Bay 

other, used to stand the Churchill and Babbitt houses, 
both excellent examples of the best period of American 
architecture. The latter, with its fine cornice, shaded 
by overhanging horse-chestnut trees, is built quite up to 
the sidewalk line, or else the sidewalk has encroached 
in latter years upon the base line of the house. Its 
proportions are ideal, and the beauty of its doorway 
relieves the severity of its unadorned front. Within 
the house the rooms are large and light, though the 
hallway and stair are too narrow for modern notions 
of comfort or convenience. The Churchill house, that 
was built by the famous privateering captain of that 
name, was distinguished by four carved American 
eagles, one upon each corner of the rail that surmounts 
the cornice. The well-proportioned cornice, or parapet 
rail, that seems a distinctive feature of a certain class of 
old Bristol dwellings, is almost the only extraneous or- 
namentation to be found in buildings of the type of the 
Babbitt and Churchill houses, the decoration of the 
doorways excepted. Upon the entrances were lavished 
all the beautiful artistic devices in embellishment that 
were rigorously and consistently denied to the broad 
face of the house, as though here the eye and the 
imaofination are invited to rest. Here, in a charmingr 
geometric group, pilasters, fan-light, panels, and hood, 
with all their chaste but rich embellishment, form a 
focal centre. 

The eagles of the Churchill house were an innova- 
tion upon the ordinary severity of that type of dwell- 



The Charm of Old Bristol 



^5 



ing. They are said to have been carved by sailors of 
the War of 1812. If true, this will fix the date of the 
building somewhat later than most of its fine contem- 
poraries. Captain Churchill commanded the privateer 
Yankee, one of the most successful freebooters that 
ever brought home the spoil of the enemy. At the 




1111: l,KKKN AT BRISTOL, SHOWING I'ART OF CHURCH AND THE COURT-HOUSE 

end of a single voyage the share of each common sailor 
is said to have been as high as a thousand dollars, and 
the wealth of the Yankee s captain was popularly com- 
puted at an enormous sum. 

In the year 1803, James DeWolf, "Captain Jim" by 
popular brevet, erected what was for that day a palatial 
house, about two miles back from the village, and 



86 Narragansett Bay 

surrounded by a highly cultivated park. William De- 
Wolf, in 1808, built the mansion now known as the 
DeWolf-Middleton house, on Pappoosesquaw Neck. 
This fine old seat has an air of distinction that is 
largely due to its perfect proportion and simplicity of 
outline. The noble columns which flank the front en- 
trance extend the full height of the house, and the 
portico roof shades a balcony and door upon the second 
story. The entrance is not so rich in detail as is that 
of the DeWolf-Colt house, which is a town house, in- 
tended to be effective at shorter range. The treatment 
of form and material in each case is exactly adapted to 
the situation. The first has two entrances, is placed in 
the centre of extensive grounds, and can be viewed 
from a great distance, while the latter stands within 
stone's throw of a village street. Above the front door 
of the Colt house, flanked with side lights, is a slightly 
flattened fan-light, surmounted by another window and 
still another fan-light, all with leaded panes and framed 
in an arrangement of Corinthian beauty. Above all is 
the roof of the portico, with its tall, stately, fluted 
columns, and bending acanthus leaves. It is a setting 
suggestive of the fine benignities, the dignified manners, 
and stately loveliness of an element that sometimes 
seems to have passed out of modern life. The Fales 
house is also upon Hope Street. It has been strongly 
criticised for a too florid application of Gothic orna- 
mentation, but nevertheless is an interesting if not 
wholly satisfactory essay in " colonial " construction. 



The Charm of Old Bristol 87 

Older than any of these houses we have been con- 
sidering is that on the corner of Hope and Union 
Streets, the house with the roof of simple slope, and 
the unsheltered little porch with four steps ascending 
to it upon either side. It marks a quieter taste, a less 
extravagant time, before the mac^nates of Bristol beean 
to roll in wealth and dream of princely establishments. 

How the wealth was made has often been whispered 
in tones of reprobation by reformers and philanthrop- 
ists of a later day. There are more than hints of car- 
goes of rum exchanged for cargoes of black people, of 
privateers that were well described by the French ap- 
pellation, "Corsair"; of bales and barrels that brought 
a stain of blood to the piled-up wharves and glutted 
warehouses. 

There was other trade as well, ventures in the far-off 
Indies and bargains made with the crafty Mongolian by 
the craftier New Englander. Then it was that the 
merchants wore broadcloth and the dames arrayed 
themselves in richest silks, and ivory and gold were 
commoner than bone and pinchbeck. Then sandal- 
wood boxes and jars of Canton enamel, and curious 
carved work, along with a thousand other interesting 
matters, found their way into the old houses, where 
many of them still remain. 

James DeWolf, to whom I lately referred as having 
built a lordly mansion two miles from the town, was 
the master spirit in Bristol during the days of his pro- 
sperity. Not only were his ships on every sea and his 



8S Narragansett Bay 

enterprises discussed by every fireside, but he was also a 
political leader of strength and ability. We read in 
one place that " James DeWolf successfully opposed the 
motion to declare Richard Jackson Jr. Governor, in 
1806." In 181 1 a bill to enfranchise all tax-payers and 
those who had served in the militia passed the Senate 
with two dissenting voices, but was opposed in the 
House by the Federalists. It was warmly supported 
by James DeWolf of Bristol. In 1819 he was elected 
Speaker of the House of Representatives, and two 
years later resigned to take his seat in the United 
States Senate. 

Whether the prosperity of Bristol increased measura- 
bly during the third decade of the nineteenth century it 
is difficult to determine. We find in 1822 a proposition 
to increase its representation in the Assembly, and an 
adjourned meeting of Assembly held, and Courts estab- 
lished there in 1824 and 1825 ; but this is conclusive of 
nothing except mere population, and that we find to 
have been stated in the census of 1820 at 3197. 

We have been looking at what may be called mediae- 
val Bristol, the period of great prosperity, following the 
rupture of the colonies with Great Britain. But the 
history of this unique town did not commence then, nor 
was that its first taste of wealth. Indeed the DeWolf 
era, as it has been called, must be taken to represent 
the renaissance of Bristol. Long before that there was 
wealth and an aristocracy here ; the place ranked among 
the important seaports of America : its wharves were 







*t)ijty^ 



i 



The Charm of Old Bristol 91 

scenes of activity and its stores overflowed with mer- 
chandise. It was a market to which many vessels 
came, a port of entry, and a place of resort for the 
rich. 

We have glanced at some of the beautiful examples 
of the architectural art of Warren and his contempo- 
raries ; but we can trace upon many of the older streets 
the evidences of an earlier taste not to be despised. 
There are many familiar features of colonial design in 
carved lintels, Corinthian columns, leaded side lights, 
and other delectable adornments. Everywhere is the 
evidence of a prosperous past, when comfortable house- 
holders had sufficient leisure to enjoy the finer side of 
life. The furnishings of many notable old houses bear 
out this impression, suggested by their exteriors. They 
are repositories for substantial heirlooms. Not infre- 
quently the things in common use to-day are the same 
that were here before Wallace bombarded the town in 

1775- 

Some of the older dwellings are scattered at intervals 
along what used to be the water front, their doors facing 
the street, while the grounds at the rear used to extend 
to the water ; but many of the oldest ones, that were 
evidently the residences of well-to-do people, are upon 
side streets, and have so far fallen from grace that they 
have become the tenements of foreigners employed in 
the rubber works. 

Consulting the chart of the bay we trace the contour 
of Bristol Neck and the natural line of distribution 



92 Narragansett Bay 

from this point to other centres of population, and are 
puzzled to account for the former activity and import- 
ance of the little city. Its present rural quiet seems so 
mAich more compatable with its geographical position. 
It is almost as far from the land — that is, the inhabited 
land of consumers — as it is from the ocean. A seaport, 
according to all experience and reason, should not only 
be in a position to receive and discharge upon the sea- 
ward side, but also to distribute and collect upon the 
landward side. To this latter use Bristol does not 
seem well adapted, nor can we imagine that with a 
smaller and more scattered population throughout 
New England the condition could have been more 
favourable. 

It is necessary to search the records and enquire of 
tradition for the explanation that the chart withholds. 
Bristol was in its earlier days not at all one with the 
Providence experiment of Roger Williams, nor the 
Newport democracy of Coddington and his companions, 
nor the Warwick Protest of Samuel Gorton. On the 
contrary, it was a part of Massachusetts Colony, an off- 
shoot from Plymouth, belonging to that Bristol County 
that is still, beyond the farther shore of the bay, a part 
of the older commonwealth. The Mount Hope lands 
that were incorporated into the township of Bristol in- 
cluded the south portion of the Neck and the penin- 
sular of Papasquash or Pappoosesquaw. Four original 
proprietors received the deed of conveyance for this 
tract in 1680. Josiah Winslow was Governor of Massa- 



The Charm of Old Bristol 93 

chusetts and Charles II. King of England at that time. 
The four original proprietors of Bristol were John 
Walley, Nathl. Oliver, Nathl. Bylield, and Stephen 
Burton, all Boston men. The deed was signed Sep. 
14th (O. S.), 24th (N. S.). Afterwards the town of 
Bristol was included in the territory confirmed to Rhode 
Island by the Royal commissioners in 1741, along with 
Cumberland, Warren, Tiverton, and Little Compton ; 
in all about 122 square miles. Warren was finally in- 
cluded in Bristol County. 

Long before its conveyance to Rhode Island, the 
more successful and well-to-do merchants of Plymouth 
made this pleasant point in the land-locked waters of 
Narragansett Bay their summer home, building at 
first slight structures, but replacing many of these in 
time with more substantial dwellings, as one family 
after another from transient visitors became permanent 
residents. 

Narragansett Bay afforded a safer harbour than that 
of Plymouth, and its approaches were much easier, so 
that finally the little branch colony became a side door, 
and a very important side door, to the commerce of 
Massachusetts. While from Bristol it is a long way 
around by shore to the mainland of Massachusetts, it is 
but a short run across by boat to any landing-place 
from Tiverton to Fall River, and consequently more 
convenient for the majority of producers or consumers 
in Massachussets than either Plymouth or Boston. 

Among the Plymouth men who in their day became 



94 Narragansett Bay 

the magnates of Bristol was Judge Hubbard, a notable 
man in Massachusetts, whose family afterwards spread 
into Connecticut, and in time became connected with 
every one of note in the Nutmeg State. The home of 
the Hubbards in Bristol was upon that delightful neck 
of land that the old inhabitants still call Papasquash 
and modern etymologists style Pappoosesquaw. Pre- 
sently the reader will be given an opportunity to decide 
for himself this vexed question in orthography. 

At first upon the peninsular a number of small 
settlers, perhaps from Providence — squatters who found 
the point a convenient fishing ground, — put up their 
cabins and lived in the primitive fashion of frontiers- 
men. Nathaniel Byfield bought up most of these small 
holdings, creating thereby a handsome estate, which he 
afterwards sold in several plantations. This Nathaniel 
Byfield held various offices and appointments under the 
Crown, among others that of Farmer of the Excise for 
Rhode Island. There is a memorial buildino- erected 
to him in Bristol, not far from St. Michael's Church. 
The Point Pleasant farm, purchased by Judge Hub- 
bard, was part of Byfield's estate, and its subsequent 
history has a peculiar interest as it touches the lines of 
several of Rhode Island's most prominent citizens. 

Old Judge Hubbard had ten children, and one of 
these, Margaret, married one William Vassel, who in 
time became proprietor of the Point Pleasant farm. 
He was, to use the language of an old Bristol resident, 
a man of parts. Cultured, agreeable in manners, rich, 



The Charm of Old Bristol 95 

a man of affairs, he seems to have won for himself an 
enviable place in the esteem of his neighbours. He 
was the son of a wealthy Jamaican planter, and in- 
herited in that island estates which gave him an income 
that was considerable for that time. 

Bristol was by that time no longer a part of Massa- 
chusetts. The change in colonial affiliation had occurred 



-■^fc'^'''2»c'«»i>-a* » 



r^^ 




PAPPOOSESQUAW NECK 



in 1747 and now the dark days of the Revolution were 
approaching. It was not enough in times when men 
staked their fortunes upon their political opinions, that 
one should be possessed of wealth, or should be pleasant 
and neighbourly. The day arrived when it became 
necessary for every citizen to choose which side he 
would espouse ; whether he would stand with the Crown 
or the colonies. 



g6 Narragansett Bay 

It mieht be written of William Vassel as it was of 
another pleasant gentleman eighteen centuries earlier : 
" He was very sorrowful, for he was rich." To decide 
for the colonies meant to give up his Jamaica estates; 
to choose the side of the Crown would be the abandon- 
ment of his Point Pleasant farm and other Bristol inter- 
ests. Vassel thought that he might escape a decision 
by moving away. The demand that he should come 
out openly in support of the new cause was answered 
by flight. When the war was over he tried to explain 
that he had been neutral, and even addressed a movingr 
letter to Simeon Potter, then the most prominent citizen 
of Bristol, praying that he would use his influence with 
the commissioners to prevent the forfeiture of Point 
Pleasant ; but Simeon would not present the case, justly 
arcruincr that to be neutral at such a crisis was to side 
with the enemy. 

So Vassel's delightful estate was sold under forfeiture, 
and the purchaser was John Brown of Providence, the 
man who had called the m-setinof that resulted in the 
burning of the Gaspce, the most widely known ship- 
owner and merchant of the city of Roger Williams, the 
citizen whose name will ever be honoured with that of 
his nephew in connection with Rhode Island's excellent 
university. 

When Vassel, the popular and prosperous neighbour, 
decided that he would take no part in the impending 
struggle with the mother country, his more decided 
acquaintances experienced a revulsion of feeling re- 



The Charm of Old Bristol 97 

specting him and treated him to a violent demonstra- 
tion, in the course of which his carriaofe was stoned and 
he was obliged to flee for his life. He escaped to Nan- 
tucket and shortly afterwards to England, where he 
finally settled. 

It was this same William Vassel who built what has 
been known as the Cragie house, afterwards occupied 
by Longfellow, at Cambridge. 

From the year 1782 the family of John Brown used 
their Bristol farm for a summer home, as the people 
from Plymouth had done long before. Every winter 
they returned to the fine old mansion in Providence, 
which several o^enerations of g-randchildren regarded as 
the home of the family gods and traditions. John 
Brown was the treasurer of the Rhode Island College 
and one of its founders, thouoh its name was chanofed 
to Brown University in compliment to his nephew 
Nicholas, the son of Nicholas, who was its liberal 
benefactor. 

At the old house on Pappoosesquaw the visitor is 
shown a window upon which is inscribed a sentence 
scrawled long ago in an idle hour by one of the notable 
sons of Massachusetts. Harrison Gray Otis while visit- 
ing at the old house took a diamond ring belonging to 
one of John Brown's daughters and wrote her name, 
" The adorable Abbey Brown," and there the compli- 
mentary record stands to this day. That same Abbey 
Browm married and became the mother of a boy who 
in time was elected to the chief office in the State, 



98 Narragansett Bay 

as Governor Francis. Abbey Brown was married in 
her father's Providence house before it was quite com- 
pleted. That house passed to the descendants of John 
Brown and was sold by them about the year 1852. 
Sarah, another of the daughters of John Brown, mar- 
ried, in 1 80 1, a German gentleman named Frederick 
Herreshoff. About two years after their marriage, the 
young couple commenced housekeeping in the old 
Point Pleasant house, where they brought up five child- 
ren. The present generation of the Herreshoff family 
consists of the famous boat-builders, with several sisters 
and their brother Lewis, to whom I am indebted for 
a number of the facts given in this chapter. They all 
were born and reared on the old Point Pleasant farm. 
One cannot but think of the list of those who have 
owned it ; Byfield, Hubbard, Vassel, Brown, Herreshoff 
— among them all not one obscure name. 

It is time to redeem a promise made in an earlier 
part of this chapter and present for the reader's edifica- 
tion a choice in etymology. Papasquash, known as 
such by old residents and so spelled upon old maps, 
is as we know a peninsula forming part of the town of 
Bristol. When King Philip, chief sachem of the Wam- 
panoags, was making his heroic last stand at Mount 
Hope, he is said to have sent all of the squaws and 
pappooses belonging to his band to the safer, because 
more remote, retreat upon the point. This is a tra- 
dition that has lonof been cherished in the neighbour- 
hood and out of it has grown a corrected spelling. 



The Charm of Old Bristol 99 

There are those who feel that the derivation of Pap- 
poosesquaw from Papasquash is by no means convincing, 
any more than would be the deduction of Muskquash, the 
Indian word for muskrat, from musk and squaw ; but 
certainly it is not a matter over which to be vehement. 
The name Pappoosesquaw was in use, though how 
general I cannot say, about fifty years ago. 

In speaking of the ancient commerce of Bristol I 
have referred especially to that with China and the 
East Indies, but there was also a very large West 
Indian trade. From the islands, where the merchants 
found a ready market for slaves, they brought large 
quantities of sugar, rum, and molasses, together with 
tobacco, which seems to have become almost as im- 
portant an article of trade as it is to-day. 

I have written in another place of Simeon Potter, at 
one time the most important citizen of Bristol, who is 
thought to have lent a hand in the Gaspce affair, and 
was certainly in great danger of punishment for treason. 
Admiral Montagu was enraged over the burning of the 
schooner Gaspee, near Pawtuxet, and was urging the 
Governor and Assembly of Rhode Island to strenuous 
efforts to discover the participants in that affair, when a 
negro — whose testimony is held in serious doubt^ — al- 
les^ed that he had eone to the scene of the schooner's 
destruction in a boat with Simeon Potter, and that the 
latter was one of the ringleaders of the expedition. 
The Admiral's low estimate of the privateer was based 
on this report. Simeon's father was the redoubtable 

L.ofC. 



loo Narragansett Bay 

sailor and privateer, Hopestill Potter, whose exploits in 
the West Indies and on the South American coast were 
household tales a century ago. With him, as clerk of 
one of his vessels, there came to Bristol a young man 
named Marc Anthony DeWolf, who may be briefly 
designated as the father of all the DeWolfs. He fell in 
love with Captain Potter's daughter and pressed his 
suit successfully. In the punning phrase of a Bristol 
man, she early made her mark, and is the honoured 
ancestress of half Bristol. In the political troubles of 
I 750-1 756, during the administration of Governor Hop- 
kins, Bristol, for commercial reasons, adhered to Provi- 
dence, her leading men being many of them interested 
in business enterprises there. In resisting the stamxp 
act the men of Boston, Philadelphia, and New York 
won the instant sympathy of the men of Bristol, and in 

1774, anticipating the action of nearly all the cities and 
towns in the colonies, a Bristol meeting passed resolu- 
tions advocating independence. 

In the War for Independence Bristol did not play a 
prominent part directly, though her sons were many of 
them engaged in different parts of the country in the 
Continental army, and her ships added to the strength 
of the new American navy. She was not, however, 
free from annoyance and even invasion. In the fall of 

1775, a British fleet anchored in Bristol harbour, and 
the place was bombarded by Wallace. This was at the 
time of the evacuation of Newport by the Americans, 
when the Tories took charge of the town, though the 



The Charm of Old Bristol loi 

British did not arrive in force till December, 1776, 
remaining after that till nearly the close of the war. 

Wallace's fleet arrived on October 7th, after having 
annoyed and harassed the Americans both on land and 
water, interfering with commerce and paralysing busi- 
ness. Wallace demanded that four magistrates of Bris- 
tol be sent off to him, probably intending to retain 
them as hostages while he made what terms he chose 
with the town. There was, naturally, a great deal of 
excitement, but the people had no idea of sacrificing 
their magistrates in any such way, and their refusal to 
comply was as prompt as Wallace's order had been 
peremptory. 

Upon receiving the reply the fleet opened fire, bom- 
barding- Bristol for four hours, durin<j which time 
several houses and churches were injured or destroyed, 
but fortunately no human lives were lost, save one who 
was afterwards reported to have been found dead, and 
he was surmised to have died from fright. After levy- 
ing from the inhabitants a contribution of forty sheep, 
Wallace sailed away. It was reported that a number 
of small articles disappeared at that time, among others 
a pair of woman's silver shoe-buckles. There seems to 
have been some skirmishing between the shore people 
and the fleet. We read that Colonel Barton, a native 
of Warren, was in Providence at the time of the attack, 
but made all haste to return to the rescue of the en- 
dangered towns and harassed the enemy, but was him- 
self wounded in the skull while sitting on horseback. 



I02 Narragansett Bay 

A year later, while Continental troops occupied 
Bristol and Tiverton, upon the arrival of the British 
in force at Newport fortifications were erected on both 
sides of Bristol ferry to keep open communication on 
the American side, and interfere with the advance of 
British ships into Mount Hope Bay and the upper end 
of the Saconnet River. 

In May, 1778, a force of the enemy landed on Bristol 
ground at a point between Pappoosesquaw and Warren. 
Dividing into two parties they marched respectively to 
Warren and the Kickamuet, which is a tributary of 
Mount Hope Bay, and about three miles across land 
to the north-east from Bristol town. The still water 
of Kickamuet makes it an especially desirable harbour 
for boats of moderate draught, and there General 
Spencer had collected a number of flat-bottomed scows, 
to be used for transports and other service against the 
British in the bay. Besides these were the row-galley 
Spitfii^e and some other craft. To this point one sec- 
tion of the British party directed its way and proceeded 
to destroy the boats, setting fire to nearly all of them, 
and doing great damage. The attack was both rapid 
and unexpected, and the Americans were unable to 
gather a force large enough to repel the invaders. 

Passing the " Ferry," which is the narrowest part of 
the channel between the end of Bristol Neck and the 
island of Rhode Island, the navigator traces the possi- 
ble course of Leif the Lucky, Son of Eric the Red, 
who with his hardy Norse followers may have entered 



■***fef- 





The Charm of Old Bristol 105 

Mount Hope Bay, in the year one thousand and one. 
We cannot disprove it, and Professor Rafn says that 
this is the place of their landing and encampment. 

Only a few years ago, a mere generation at most, it 
was the fashion to believe every legend that was suf- 
ficiently romantic. Our fathers believed in the Norse 
origin of the round tower at Newport, of which more 
will be found in the proper place, and they saw no 
reason to dispute the dictum of the Stockholm anti- 
quaries who would land Leif upon the shore of Mount 
Hope Bay. This is a branch of Narragansett Bay, 
with an opening into the Saconnet River, or Channel 
and is the eastern boundary of Bristol Neck, which is 
about two miles in breadth. The bay from Hopeworth 
and the Soldiers Home to Fall River, is about four 
miles in width, a broad, shallow basin, fed by four little 
rivers, of which Taunton is the largest ; the Kickamuet, 
nearest to the Bristol shore, has already been referred to. 

At the very entrance to the bay, coming up from the 
Ferry, the most prominent object in the landscape is an 
attractive hill, that in a flat country takes upon itself all 
the dignity and importance of a mountain. Like a 
veritable mountain it offers a view of wide extent and 
varied interest. All values are relative, and the lofty 
crest of Mount Hope would be hardly more than a re- 
spectable mound in the Hudson Highlands, and might 
sink to the level of a depression in a more mountain- 
ous reofion. To tell the truth, it is onh' two hundred 
feet above sea level ; but that is pre-eminence in its 



io6 Narragansett Bay 

neighbourhood. Fifteen miles or more to the south, 
along the length of the Saconnet River, the eye travels 
past points and bays, to where a distant sail looms upon 
the rim of the Atlantic ; or, shifting ever so little to the 
west, where the waters of Narragansett shimmer and 
glow in the sunlight, distant Newport displays a long 
low belt of violet, dotted with indistinct microscopic 
hillocks, each one of which is the costly home of some 
unusually prosperous human ant. Equally distant, in 
an opposite direction, is Providence, overhung with a 
smoky cloud and at night canopied with the corona of 
its own lights. Four miles distant from Hope, across 
the bay, is Fall River. There is a place behind it from 
which the moon rises. 

Almost a third of the State of Rhode Island is ex- 
hibited, as upon a chart, but a chart of marvellous 
contour and colour, from this delightful little eminence. 

Whether or not Hope was the "Hop" of the Nor- 
weofian saea, the hill has an authentic claim to historic 
consideration, for it was here that that hero and orenius 
in a red skin, even King Philip, chief of the Wam- 
panoags, made his headquarters during those dark days 
when he was striving to unite the Indians in a common 
assault upon the growing power of the whites. 



Chapter V 
From the Top of Pocanoket 

AMONG the many celebrated characters who 
have filled the pages of colonial history, none 
has a more valid claim to recofjnition than 
Philip of Pokanoket. Other Indian leaders were called 
chief, sachem, or sagamore, but to this red man alone 
even his enemies accorded the title of all other titles in 
their estimation the most exalted. King Philip's name 
was heard with pride or fear wherever red or white 
men roamed the forests, or built their stockades in the 
clearings, from the Saco to the Roanoke. 

Metacomet, his people called him : he was the son of 
that powerful and friendly Sachem, Massasoit, to whom 
the white settlers owed so much. It is perhaps not an 
overestimate of the value of his protection that at one 
time the very existence of the Massachusetts colony 
depended upon it. The old Sachem never wavered in 
his honest loyalty to those English friends, and happily 
died in ignorance of their folly and ingratitute. 

Hardly had the good Massasoit passed away when 
his eldest son, Alexander, was seized upon a suspicion 
for which history fails to show any foundation, and, his 

log 



no Narragansett Bay 

heart being broken by the indignity he suffered, he fell 
immediately into a fever. Upon being released he died 
before reaching his own lodge. 

To Alexander succeeded Philip, or Matacomet, the 
young son of Massasoit, who forgot the peaceful pre- 
cepts of his father in the desire for revenge engendered 
by his brother's death. 

There is a very singular and striking series of facts 
connected with the Indian wars that form such a dread- 
ful chapter in New England record. Massachusetts 
was very sparsely populated by red men at the time 
of the Plymouth and other settlements. An epidemic, 
fearful in its ravages, had swept away all but a remnant 
of the tribes in that part of the country. To the west- 
ward, on the contrary, there were strong tribes of active 
and warlike savages, and the shores of Narragansett 
Bay in particular were the home of a large population. 

When Roger Williams and many another of the best 
men among the Massachusetts colonists were driven 
out to perish in the wilderness, they were forced to 
leave a land where there were comparatively few In- 
dians and cro into a region teeminof with them. To 
their policy and to the friendliness of Massasoit and 
other chiefs is due their survival. In connection with 
the foregoing facts we must notice another, bearing a 
close relationship to them. The Indian wars that so 
greatly troubled the Massachusetts colonists did not 
generally involve the settlers upon Narragansett Bay, 
and except upon rare occasions they were not in any 



«l ■. '.¥ '■^ 




From the Top of Pocanoket 113 

serious danger from the savages, though they hved in 
the very midst of the hostile tribes. 

Here we return to King PhiHp and his brief but 
brilHant history. Pol<anoket, his royal residence, was 
that same delightful hill that we of to-day know as 
Mount Hope. Bristol and its vicinity was the tribal 
home of the Wampanoags, whose alliance with other 
powerful peoples extended to the south and west. The 
Narragansetts were their allies, and many a sachem or 
chieftainess of some sub-tribe along the shores of the 
bay claimed kinship with the Wampanoag king. 

Philip is credited with having conceived a plan which 
was imperial in its scope. He would not be satisfied to 
harass a handful of settlers here or there, or to wreak 
vengeance upon a few individuals, while the power of 
his enemies continued to increase and retribution was 
sure to follow any inadequate act of aggression. He 
aimed, it is supposed, at nothing less than a concert of 
all the tribes upon the Atlantic seaboard, north and 
south, and contemplated a war so sweeping in its effect 
that not a white man should be left alive in all the land. 

If this idea occurred to King Philip, it is evidence of 
his knowledcre of the coast and its inhabitants for at 
least a thousand miles, though journeys at that day 
were invariably accomplished either on foot or in frail 
canoes, and geographical data was by no means easy to 
obtain. To have both conceived his great plan of con- 
federation and endeavoured to carry it out stamps Philip 
amone the remarkable leaders of his time. 



114 Narragansett Bay 

But the orgeat machine that was to annihilate the 
white settlers was not yet in working order, its parts 
not assembled, when, through the treachery of one of 
Philip's own tribesmen, the English learned what was 
going on, and wisely struck the first blow, before their 
adversary could make further preparation. 

The man who told of his chief's plots was a hanger- 
on at the white settlement, a convert to Calvinism, and 
possibly also to the flesh-pots that in later days made 
New England kitchens famous. Sausaman, the in- 
former, was soon afterwards found dead in a pond, 
upon which the ice had evidently been broken when 
his body was thrown in. An inquest disclosed the fact 
that he had been murdered, and a motive being dis- 
covered in his betrayal of Philip's plan, — which was 
then seriously recalled for the first time, — three Indians 
were apprehended and condemned. 

In the pages of Mather's Magnalia Christi, which is a 
treasury of supernaturalia, the reverend author gravely 
states as a fact that whenever the foremost of the mur- 
derers, who was a friend and counsellor of Philip's, ap- 
proached the corse of the slain man, it would commence 
to bleed afresh. Upon such evidence as this the King's 
friends were put to death. 

The fate of Miantonimo was too recent to be for- 
gotten ; the chief knew that even acquittal in the courts 
of his enemies would not save his life if he should fall 
into their hands ; he therefore at once prepared to meet 
the conflict that was as inevitable as it was premature. 



From the Top of Pocanoket 115 

For years the most widely read accounts of King 
Phihp's war were drawn from the narrative of one of 
the most bigoted and superstitious of his foes, who, 
having got his material at second hand, from partisans 
opposed to the Indian chieftain, thought it no shame 
to exploit his own narrowness and credulity. To him 
the Indian hero was a devil from the nethermost pit, 
and his splendid patriotism no more to be condoned 
than the traditional excursions of the " roaring lion " 
of Holy Writ. 

Unsupported by a majority of those chieftains whom 
he had hoped to draw into his alliance, Philip could 
offer no adequate resistance to a foe as rugged and as 
resolute as his own devoted followers, and vastly better 
armed. His chief supporter was Canonchet, head of the 
Narragansetts, to whose chieftainship the young warrior 
had been elevated when his great father, Miantonimo, 
was slain ; yet even this sachem, with a great burden 
of wrongs to revenge, refused to take an active part 
in the war at first, but received Philip's broken forces 
after a defeat, and gave them such substantial aid that 
the aneer of the Enorlish was aroused aq-ainst him and 
he was included in the vengeance they had determined 
to mete out to the Wampanoag chief. 

Before Canonchet had declared for him, Philip's 
name had already become one of terror to the white 
people of Massachusetts, to whom he seemed ul)i(iui- 
tous. His strongholds were in impenetrable forest mo- 
rasses, where the English dared not follow the light 



ii6 Narragansett Bay 

feet of the Indian, On bridges and causeways of roots 
his followers made their way through reeking bogs, and 
again and again found some unsuspected way of escape 
when hemmed in by their foes. With dreadful celerity 
Philip contrived to strike blow after blow at points so 
distant from each other that a suspicion of witchcraft 
besfan to attend his flig^ht. 

It was upon Pocasset Neck in Barnstable, surrounded 
by the waters of Buzzard's Bay, that the English finally 
congratulated themselves that they had cornered Philip. 
This was the home of a tribe ruled over by Philip's 
kinswoman, VVeetamoe, who afterwards died in his 
cause. The Neck was not suited for a battle-ground 
for the white men, but they deemed it an excellent 
starving ground for a company of bottled-up savages, 
so they built a fort where the Neck leaves the mainland, 
and sat down to wait. While they waited, the be- 
leaguered Indians made rafts, and leaving all behind 
but able warriors, they escaped on these flimsy vessels 
and succeeded in making land. Then it was that Can- 
onchet showed his quality by giving them shelter and 
aid and answering to the English demand for their 
surrender that not a nail-paring of a Wampanoag would 
be given up by him. 

The fate of the Princess Weetamoe may be briefly 
told here, belonging as it does in part to the stories of 
Mount Hope Bay. When Philip was near the end of 
his career, that brave and faithful woman, driven in 
retreat before the English with the remnant of her 




WUUULANU liOKDEK OK THE SWAMT WHKRE KIN(; I'lIIMr VKIA. 



117 



«*'l 



From the Top of Pocanoket 119 

people, came to one of the numerous rivers or inlets 
and attempted to swim to the other shore. Exhausted 
by her previous exertions and possibly starving as well, 
but with no dream of surrender, she fought her last 
battle, alone, with the overwhelming waves. 

It is probable that Weetamoe, sustained by her cour- 
age, succeeded in reaching the shore she sought, but in 
such a weak condition that she could not rally. Her 
body was found, naked, a short distance from the shore, 
and her barbarous foes severed the head, and, carrying 
it to Taunton, set it upon a pole, where it was recog- 
nised and bewailed " with most horrid and diabolical 
lamentations " by her captive tribesmen. 

Down in the Narragansett country, Philip and Canon- 
chet together made a stronghold and storehouse upon 
an island in a great swamp, several miles in extent and 
unattainable, it was thought, by any white man. But 
hidden by a December snow-storm and finding a solid 
footing of ice upon the treacherous face of the swamp, a 
renegade Indian guided a large force of settlers to the 
retreat. The Saoramores and their followers were taken 
by surprise, and, though they fought fiercely, were 
forced to retreat. Having driven them away the Eng- 
lish kindled a fire that not only destroyed wigwams and 
storehouses wnth the goods and the provisions of the 
foe, but consumed also the women and the babes. 
That such an outrage should have been committed, 
even in the heat of battle, by white men of any nation- 
ality, was bad enough, but that it was chronicled with 



I20 Narragansett Bay 

evident satisfaction by so-called historians of that day, 
is too horrible to comprehend. 

After having been driven from the Narragansett coun- 
try the two chiefs were hunted from one fastness to 
another. Canonchet was the first to meet his death. 
Having found a strong rallying place in Connecticut, 
and gathering around him a considerable force from 
neighbouring tribes, the Narragansett chief set out with 
a few companions to forage for corn in the neighbour- 
hood of Mount Hope. Surprised by his enemies, and 
unable to elude them, his gun rendered useless by fall- 
ing into a stream as he was crossing, he was finally 
captured. His life was offered to him on condition of 
allegiance, and the offer was refused with a dignity 
worthy of a king. He was condemned to death, and 
was shot by three young sachems. 

Philip, now alone, saw his followers dispersed, his 
adherents diminishing in numbers. His wife and child 
were slain, his allies either captured or faithless, his 
cause lost. One by one the things that had made life 
sweet were stripped from him. He came back by 
stealth to his own home, Pocanoket — Mount Hope. 
What a desolate mockery that superb view must have 
seemed to him as he lay among the white, bare rocks 
and looked out over the wind-swept junipers to the 
familiar haunts. There was the Saconnet channel, 
sparkling in the sunlight, but upon its whole expanse 
not one canoe manned by a friend of his. There were 
the fair lands of Canonchet — his brother in arms, the 



From the Top of Pocanoket 121 

defeated and slain Canonchet. There he could trace, 
near at hand, the site of his own lately crowding wig- 
wams and see as on a map the place of his corn-fields, 
all marked by ashes and ruin. 

His people, his kinsmen, his family, where were 
they? He looked about him and looked upon the 
pitiful survivors of all that brave race, and his heart 







i-^ 



MOUNT HOPE BAY, LOOKING TOWARD TIVERTON 

was like stone. Over there, across the water, was a 
camp of the English. He would strike one last blow. 

A follower, tired of the hopeless struggle, came near 
him and began to speak. The fugitive king heard the 
words, " submit, surrender." He rose and slew the 
man. Then the brother of the one that Philip had 
killed slunk away and ran to the English camp and 
betrayed his chief, for revenge. The Sagamore was 
driven from his ancient fortress into a swamp near at 



122 Narragansett Bay 

hand, and here at last he was slain by a treacherous 
member of his own race. 

There used to be a tradition not many years ago 
that the ghost of the unconquered warrior was some- 
times seen, on moonlit nights, but particularly before a 
storm, springing from foothold to foothold through the 
marsh. That retreat still preserves its wild and tangled 
character, presenting an aspect of mysterious gloom. 
There are even now unaccountable wailings in the 
woods, and strange indefinable whisperings on the hill- 
top, and the shadows reveal moving gleams of dusky 
light that flit from place to place. I have sought the 
shade of the old Indian king and fostered a super- 
stitious hope that haply I might sometime encounter 
him ; perhaps it is as well that I have not ^succeed^ed, 
for even in life he is credited with having had a fine 
hair-raising propensity. 

The spot where Philip made his last reconnaissance 
and that other place, where he was treacherously slain, 
have each been marked with inscriptions engraved upon 
boulders faced for the purpose. As long as grass 
grows and waters run, it will matter little who holds 
the title deeds to hill or swamp, the imagination will 
people the region with its ancient proprietors, and his- 
tory will confirm the claim of him " who holds in mort- 
main still his old estate." 

One of the institutions of Bristol is the State Soldiers 
Home. About two miles from the village and occupying 
a delightful situation overlooking Mount Hope Bay are 



From the Top of Pocanoket 123 

the larore and handsome buildinors in wiiich the indiirent 
and crippled, or superannuated heroes who have served 
in the Rhode Island contingent of the National army, 
find a refuge. Central among the buildings is a round 
tower of red brick, crowned with a conical cap and 
mantled half-way up with a splendid green kirtle of ivy. 
It affords a fine colour contrast and fortunately can be 
seen from a distance. The discipline of the home is 
not severe, just enough to secure regularity in meals 
and other functions, yet sufficiently lax to suit the indi- 
vidual peculiarities of a few score elderly men. The 
necessaries of life, including good and wholesome fare 
and clothing, are provided by the State, but luxuries 
must be purchased out of each man's private means, 
and this leads to various ingenious ways of making 
pin-money. Sometimes a veteran who is hand\- with a 
penknife and glue-pot, puts in part of his time in the 
manufacture of dainty doll's furniture or other small 
souvenirs, evolving these ingenious toys from discarded 
cigar-boxes. The campers and picnickers that frequent 
the near-by shore leave many things that become sources 
of income to the old soldiers. Bottles are collected, 
and, having a market value, are usually converted into 
tobacco. Sometimes the veterans pick fruit or perform 
other light work for pcojjle in tiu- vicinit}'. and when 
the wild blackberries ripen they open for awhile a 
thriving industry. Clam digging is an occupation that 
never seems to flag, and fishing has its votaries. 

Everywhere along shore you meet them, the cpiiet. 



124 Narragansett Bay 

kindly, unhurrying old men. The bustle of life is over 
for them ; they dream no dreams of wealth or influence 
or fame ; they have no need to consider the ant, who 
toils for his daily bread; theirs is provided. It is a 
strange community, from which all the large anxieties 
and the large incentives have been eliminated, and the 
members know that on this side of the grave there is 
nothing more to expect either of good or evil fortune. 

I have spoken of the parties who visit the shore for 
picnic purposes. Bristol Neck is a famous locality for 
clam bakes, and at every convenient rocky cove, par- 
ticularly noar Mount Hope, the little cairns of stone, 
blackened by fire and enclosing beds of charred sea- 
weed, tell the story of a culinary pilgrimage. 

The shore cannot be closed to the wayfarer. Ac- 
cording to Rhode Island law every foot of the devious 
coast line that encloses tide water affords a public right- 
of-way, which no owner of adjacent property can refuse 
to recognise. One familiar illustration of the working 
of this wise law is the Cliff Walk at Newport, which 
passes through the magnificent grounds of the most ex- 
clusive property owners, who have made a virtue of 
necessity, and in most instances groom the walk to 
make it correspond with its park-like surroundings. 

On the south-eastern end of Mount Hope Bay, where 
the channel of the Saconnet enters it, the quiet town of 
Tiverton reposes. Quiet — yet not by any means inert, 
for it has its own little fleet of vessels and a very re- 
spectable trade, for which its situation is admirably 



From the Top of Pocanoket 127 

adapted. Tiverton evidently rejoices that it is ahve, 
for every August there is a celebration which in- 
cludes speeches, coloured fire-rockets, a parade and 
much music, to keep green the memory of the day 
when the place was founded. On three separate occas- 
ions, in three distinct Augusts, I have seen the lights 
and the fireworks, and have been informed that Tiverton 
was glorying in its foundation, so that it seems reasona- 
ble to infer that the custom has grrown to be habitual. 

A town that can display such honest pride in its own 
existence is certainly worth a visit — unless the wind 
chances to be in the quarter that will bring down the 
odours of an adjacent fish factory, than which nothing 
more unsavoury has been imagined on earth since the sea 
birds removed the remains of the last leviathan. Leav- 
ing the fish factory aside, as we may do if the breeze 
blows away from us, Tiverton is doubly interesting 
because of its geographical position and its history. It 
was originally known by the Indian name of Pocasset, 
and celebrated for many years as the scene of the great 
swamp fight in Philip's War. There it was, being en- 
compassed by his enemies, that the Indian King with- 
drew as though by magic with all his force, leaving the 
Englishmen to guard an empty morass. 

In 1746 Tiverton, along with Bristol, Little Comp- 
ton, Warren, and Cumberland were, by the enforcement 
of the royal decree concerning the eastern l)oundary of 
Rhode Island, brought within the jurisdiction of that 
colony, and incorporated. 



1 28 Narragansett Bay 

Tiverton was garrisoned by the American army dur- 
ing the British occupancy of Newport, and the battle 
of Tiverton Heights, as it was called, occurred upon 
the 29th of August I 778. When the French finally took 
possession of Newport, the Tiverton barracks were as- 
signed to them for hospital uses, as was also a farm 
in Bristol. 

Amone the notable men whose names are asso- 
ciated with Tiverton's history perhaps the most 
prominent is that of Joseph Wanton, one of the most 
successful shipbuilders in the colony, from whose yard 
were launched many of the famous merchantmen and 
privateers of the old times. He was a Quaker and 
noted not only for his patriotic interest in public affairs, 
but also for his private hospitality. It is said that he 
literally kept open house for whoever came hungry or 
destitute to his gate, as well as for such as might claim 
social equality with him. 

Joseph Wanton and his wife were both public 
speakers of the Society of Friends, and his eloquence is 
said to have been extraordinary. He was the oldest 
son of Edward Wanton the first, and followed his 
father's calling. Two of his brothers were Governors 
of the Colony, and in time his son Gideon filled the 
same office. His nephew and namesake, Joseph Wan- 
ton, second, was the last Tory Governor of Rhode 
Island, and his lands were confiscated when the inde- 
pendence of the States was won. 

Along the eastern border of the bay, part in Rhode 



From the Top of Pocanoket 131 

Island and part in Massachusetts, stretches the busy, 
husthng, bustling, hard-working town of Fall River. If 
ever there was a large concrete denial of a hoary adage, 
it is here. The bells ring and the whistles blow by 
scores at an early hour in the morning, and the major 
part of the large population commences work ; when 
the labours of the day are over, the bread-winning thou- 
sands are glad to rest. Early both in rising and retir- 
ing, no one has ever yet accused the average Fall 
River mill-hand with being wealthy, or healthy, or 
over-wise. 

Everyone knows Fall River. The great Sound 
steamers that collect and distribute passengers en route 
between Boston and New York would be sufficient to 
celebrate it, if it had no other interests. But Fall 
River is one of the world's famous manufacturing 
towns, and the great majority of its population are mill- 
hands. Neither its private dwellings nor, except in 
some few cases, its public buildings, nor its places of 
amusement, nor its hotels suggest a city with large 
pretensions to intellectual or social culture, though as 
a business centre it has few rivals among towns of its 
size in the world. The comparatively meagre evidences 
of ideals familiar to Cambridge or Princeton, that one 
may find upon the outskirts of Fall River, seem rather 
to accentuate its general depression of tone. 

It is from a distance that it becomes a thing of 
beauty. By day the smoke hangs heavy over its chim- 
neys, that are so thick as to suggest the idea that every 



152 Narragansett Bay 

building has shouldered an inordinately long musket 
and is staggering with it to a general rendezvous. 
When the sunrise is behind those chimneys in the early 
mornino- — which is the time for the arrival of the boat 
from New York — they are transformed, and again, when 
the level afternoon rays strike those huge piles of brick 
and masonry, they put on a wonderful beauty. Shade 
after shade of red or of russet melts into misty violet 
shadows and the sunlight is flung back in splendour 
from ten thousand windows. The bay takes up the 
scheme and elaborates and extends it into a dazzling 
fugue of light and colour. Then, when the sun goes 
down and one by one the chimneys are blotted out by 
the shadows, the clusters and constellations of electric 
lights appear and again the complacent bosom of the 
water resumes its auxiliary task, and with a thousand 
fantastic loopings of serpentine brilliancy completes the 
picture. 

To really appreciate Fall River one should never ap- 
proach nearer than the opposite side of Mount Hope 
Bay. From Mount Hope itself the city is a spectacle 
for the gods. 

A careful study of guide-books or maps made during 
the first three or four decades of the nineteenth century 
will fail to discover Fall River. The explanation is 
that at that time the town, then a mere hamlet, was 
masquerading under another name. As part of Free- 
town it came over from the eighteenth century, and in 
1803 was incorporated separately, though it was several 



From the Top of Pocanoket 133 

years before its population reached twelve hundred 
souls. Then and until 1834 it was called Troy, but 
finally the name was changed back to that by which the 
village had been originally known. In 1854 the city 
charter was obtained, although at that time the in- 
habitants did not number more than fourteen thou- 
sand. Now the population is upwards of one hundred 
thousand, and the capital invested in cotton mills, 
spindles, looms, etc., above thirty million dollars. There 
are a great many vessels belonging to Fall River, 
which, by the way, is a port of entry. The name is de- 
rived from a stream which must formerly have been 
very beautiful, dashing in a succession of cataracts from 
Watuppa Lake and in half a mile accomplishing a de- 
scent of one hundred and forty feet. The Fall River 
water-works, established at a cost of a million and a 
half dollars, are upon this lake, which is nearly ten 
miles long. The city of Fall River covers an area of 
about thirty square miles. 

Of all the tributaries of Mount Hope Bay, none is 
better worth exploring than the Taunton River, and, 
though we are trespassing upon Massachusetts territory 
and outside of our own preserve of Narragansett, yet a 
brief excursion may be forgiven. For about fifteen 
miles the Taunton is navigable, though in man\- placets 
hardly broader than the Bronx at its lower end. In 
many of its features it reminds one of an Fnglish river, 
thouofh the shores are not so well o^roomed and the 
verdure is American. The banks are abloom in late 



134 Narragansett Bay 

summer with golden-rod, queen's lace and Jo-Pye weed, 
with jewel weed, early asters and cardinal flowers, and 
the middle grounds of meadow and woods are brightened 
with sumach, pepperidge and maple. 

Every turn of the little river presents a surprise, a 
picture to treasure always in the house of memory. 
The farmhouses near the shore are delightfully old- 
fashioned, nearly always trim and comfortable in 
appearance, and generally glorified by a setting of noble 
trees, among which elms predominate. 

The temptation is strong to linger at the towns that 
appear at intervals. Who can ever forget the first 
glimpse of the three white spires of Somerset, rising 
from a little mosaic of roofs and tree tops and suggest- 
ing to the mind of the poet and the bosom of the river 
delio-htful, if conventional, reflections. 

At Dighton there is a pictured rock, or rather an in- 
scribed rock, that was known and noted by the first or 
second generation of Englishmen in America and has 
been the puzzle of archaeologists ever since. Of course 
its untranslated inscription has been ascribed to the 
Norsemen, and equally of course, no follower of Eric or 
Leif has ever come back to deny the authorship ; but a 
sceptic age refuses too serious a credence to the idea 
that lines cut by an idle sailor upon an exposed rock- 
face, near tide water, would stand the weathering of a 
thousand American winters. 

One of the excitements of navigation on the Taunton 
is the chance of meetinof the coal barges that loom like 



From the Top of Pocanoket 135 

leviathans upon the Httle stream, suggesting- a whale in 
a trout brook. About two miles below Taunton there 
is a noticeable fragrance of balsam in the air and pres- 
ently one is aware of the neighbourhood of pine woods, 
a bit of the forest primeval, that still holds its place 
amid the shifting scene. 

Even at Taunton the tide is still felt, the water still 
brackish. The shores are Massachusetts shores, but 
the water upon which we have been voyaging is Narra- 
gansett water, though somewhat adulterated by an 
alien stream. 




AT THE ENTRANCli UF MOUNT IIOl'E HAY. STAkTINC l't)lNT UE KING I'llILll'S 
FORAYS INTO MASSACHUSETTS 



Chapter VI 
Sea Rovers from the Bay 

THE men who settled the shores of Narragansett 
Bay were many of them descendants of the 
early mariners of England, the men of old 
Plymouth and the western ports, who manned the pri- 
vateer ships that, under Drake and Hawkins, formed 
the sturdiest bulwark of Elizabeth's throne. 

Active, persistent, impatient of control, the sons of 
sires who had ravaged the fleets of Spain and singed 
the beard of her king, found it impossible to conform 
to the rules made by the iron-bound theocrats of Mas- 
sachusetts Bay. We have seen how with creditable 
dispatch most of them insured their own banishment by 
various and vigorous protests against the existing order 
of things. With a fine amphibious instinct they laid the 
foundations of a State that is about one-third tide water. 

From these men sprang many of the boldest captains 
that have ever commanded American vessels. In the 
old colonial wars they were the legalised freebooters 
that hunted the seas for war craft or merchantmen, and 
in the early days of the Republic they were still fore- 
most in maritime service. 

136 



Sea Rovers from the Bay 137 

In default of a na\y the defence of tlie American 
colonies, in time ol war. depended almost entirely upon 
privateers, fitted out !))• jjrivate entiM-prise, at the risk 
of indi\idual owners ; who were reimbursed, if at all, by 
booty ca})tured from tlie enem)-. 

The Government, ro)al or colonial, Li^ranted letters 
of "marque and reprisal" to these acKcnturers, but was 
not otherwise responsible either for their expenses, their 
conduct, or thcnr fate. 

A tenth of the proceeds of a successful expedition 
was usually returned to the Govc;rnn"ieiU, which thus 
became sharer in the i)rofits, though not in the risks, of 
the game. In the (;mplo\'ment of such knights errant 
cif the high-seas, the- colonies tlid but follow the ex- 
ample of the Mother Countr\- antl of luu'ope. 

From the conditions of their life, the men of Narra- 
gansett Bay became as expert navigators as an\- in the 
world. I'rom every harbour and ba)' their ships put 
out to sea, and their lives were lived almost as much 
ujion the ocean as on the land. That waste of storm\' 
water was their high\va\' to the hoindaiid lliex' had left 
and to the neighbouring settUmients upon the coast. 
It brought them intelligence of the world that had be- 
come too crowded for them and furnished them with 
the greater part of their living. It was a friendly and 
familiar presence comjjared with the dark, unknown 
forests that, on the other hand, hemmed in the narrow 
territory they occupied on the margin of a continent. 

To men so bred the transition Irom the peaceful 



138 Narragansett Bay 

occupations of fishing and trading to the Hfe of roving 
commerce-destroyers was not a difficult one. Their 
enerory found scope in enterprises that satisfied equally 
their patriotism and their desire for gain. Their deeds 
sometimes rose to heights of disinterested heroism, or 
descended to the level of legalised piracy. 

When a Rhode Island privateer returned to New- 
port or Providence from a successful cruise, he was 
honoured by his fellow colonists as a hero, but when a 
Frenchman of the same trade fell into their hands he 
was apt to suffer the penalty for piracy. Thus it hap- 
pened that Peter Legrand, Peter Jesseau, and Francis 
Bondeau were hanged at Newport, in 1738, and various 
other " corsairs " suffered the same fate at different 
times. 

The Narragansett privateersmen did not confine their 
activities to home waters. Wherever the keel of an 
enemy's merchantman moved in distant seas, there 
might the lookout expect to discover the white wings 
of some swift bird of prey from the land of Roger 
Williams. 

"The mildest-mannered man that ever scuttled ship 
or cut a throat " might have found his prototype on 
board of a Rhode Island privateer, or one from the 
Bay colony, commanded by a Presbyterian elder or a 
Quaker legislator, and manned by crews that had been 
nourished on the shorter catechism and who handled 
their sheets to the accompaniment of a " chanty " from 
the Psalms of David. 



Sea Rovers from the Bay 139 

Their nets were cast for fish of all varieties. A 
plate ship, bowling home from the Spanish main, a 
slaver bringing its sorry passengers from the Congo 
coast, or a merchantman freighted with the handicraft 
of the weavers and smiths of France, were alike wel- 
come to the devout freebooters. 

It was a profession to tempt the ambition of restless 
youth, and its prizes were not infrequently greater than 
could be won in any other. As an example of what 
a successful privateersman might achieve, the shining 
career of Sir Charles Wager may be indicated, as one 
of the most successful in this irregular branch of the 
service. He was an orphan, brought up in Rhode 
Island as the adopted son of John Hull, and after an 
adventurous life won pre-eminent rank in the British 
navy, where he became the ready and powerful cham- 
pion of the Rhode Island sea rovers. While sailing in 
a privateer commanded by his adopted father. Wager, 
by a brilliant exploit, attracted the attention of some 
British officers, and one of them strongly advised the 
boy to enter the regular service. This he did, ad- 
vancinor throuorfi all the orrades, till finally he became 
First Lord of the Admiralty. He was in power during 
the days of Walpole's ministry, and was the advocate 
of the Rhode Islanders in many of their ilisputes with 
the Crown or with their neighbours. 

To this distinguished seaman some have attributed 
the custom, now common, of distributing among the 
crew of a victorious vessel the prize money gained from 



HO Narragansett Bay 

the foe. But we may question whether the privateers 
of earlier days and other countries did not offer Jacky 
this incentive to a strenuous Hfe. To the men who 
divided the spoils of Spanish warships in recent years, 
the genesis of prize-sharing may be of interest. 

Sir Charles Wager was by no means the only Rhode 
Islander who won distinction in the regular service of 
his Government after an apprenticeship in the ranks of 
the privateers. Commodore Abraham Whipple was 
another of those who were promoted from private to 
public maritime service. He was a shining example of 
American pluck and seamanship combined. In one 
cruise, in the years 1 759-60, he is said to have cap- 
tured twenty-three French prizes, and the value of the 
British vessels that struck to his superior skill and 
energy during the Revolution has been calculated at 
over one million dollars. 

The name of William Jones, who was afterwards 
Governor of Rhode Island, appears as one of the offi- 
cers of the frigate, Providence. This vessel was built, 
it is said, in the incredibly short time of seventeen days 
(actual working time), and mounted twenty-eight guns. 
Her commander was Abraham Whipple, to whom refer- 
ence has been made above. For some time the sailing 
of the Providence and her sister ship, the Warren, was 
delayed, owing to the presence of British ships of war 
in Narragansett Bay. But at length, being ordered to 
bear some dispatches to France, Captain Whipple took 
advantage of a dark, stormy night, and slipped away. 




COMMODORE ABRAHAM WlIirri.E 
FROM A WATER-COLOUR IN THE COLLECTION OF THE RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL 

SOCIETY 



141 



Sea Rovers from the Bay 143 

He went stealthily, showing no lights, and enforcing 
silence on board the frigate, till, when near Prudence 
Island, he became aware of the proximity of a British 
warship. Unable to resist the pressing temptation, he 
poured a broadside into her at close range and kept on 
his course, leaving his adversary to recover from her 
surprise at her leisure. The Providence got safe away, 
and in due time William Jones, Captain of Marines, 
went ashore at Brest, in France, with the dispatches. 

One Captain Jones, said to be John Paul, command- 
ing the Alfred, of the Continental navy, finding it diffi- 
cult to procure the number of men he needed when 
ordered to sail, solved the problem by impressing 
twenty-four men from the Eagle, then near the mouth 
of the bay. 

Privateering dated back to the very early days of the 
Colony, before organisation had brought order to the 
scattered communities near the Bay, and while Provi- 
dence was still a seething hot-bed of faction. In 1649 
Roger Williams wrote to John Winthrop about a prize 
captured by Captain Clarke, "which the Dutch contend 
had been taken in violation of the treaty between Eng- 
land and Spain." The frigate in which Clarke sailed 
was afterwards purchased by a Frenchman, named 
Bluefield, who tried to get authority to go to the West 
Indies, but was prevented from leaving, " lest his vessel 
should be employed against American commerce." In 
1652 the Providence Colony was authorised to commis- 
sion privateers to serve against the ships of the Low 



144 Narragansett Bay 

Countries. Previous to that date four ships had been 
commissioned for similar service, and one of them was 
commanded by William Dyer. It was not unusual for 
men who were at least nominally Quakers to take part 
in such irregular warfare. One of the strangest contrasts 
that the records of colonial life present is to be found 
in the history of the Wanton family, nearly all Quakers 
and descendants of one whose faith had caused his ban- 
ishment from the Massachusetts settlements. They 
were men of standing, merchants and ship-masters, as 
well as legislators ; a virile race, to whom leadership 
on land or water seems to have come by nature. 

The first of the Wantons of whom we know anything 
definitely, was a soldier of the Massachusetts colony, 
who stood near Mary Dyer when she was executed and 
who afterwards dated his conversion to the tenets of 
the Friends from that day. After the execution of 
Mary Dyer, Edward Wanton never again bore arms, 
and his remonstrance against warlike enterprises on the 
part of his sons is said to have been earnest : but while 
he deprecated their fighting, he took pains to assure 
them that he would be much more displeased if they 
should prove themselves cowards. It is said of one of 
these sons, William, that he fell in love with a Presby- 
terian maid of Scituate, but that the match was dis- 
pleasing to the parents on both sides, because of their 
religious differences. At last William resolved to end 
the difficulty by one bold stroke. Entering the home 
of his lady-love, he said — while the family sat about in 



Sea Rovers from the Bay 145 

consternation — " Ruth, we are made for each other and 
cannot live apart. Let us settle this matter. Do thou 
give up the Presbyterians and I will cut the Quakers, 
and we will join the Episcopalians and go to the devil 
together." This they agreed to do, though their after- 
lives do not show that they lived up to the suggestion 
of the last clause of William's proposition. 

Another story told of William Wanton was that years 
afterwards, when filling the office of Governor, he 
appeared (in a scarlet coat lined with blue) at a 
Quaker wedding, and spoke eloquently on the subject 
of marriaLre. 

John Wanton, the brother of William, also filled the 
gubernatorial chair in Rhode Island, as did several other 
members of that distinguished family. These two were 
among the leading privateers during Queen Anne's war, 
near the middle of the Eighteenth century. They were 
both Quakers, for in spite of William's agreement to go 
to the Episcopal Church and the devil, he returned to 
his father's faith. 

When the French commerce-destroyers were ravag- 
ing the shores of Narragansett Bay, the W^antons re- 
solved to put an end to such practices. The fact that 
they had at their command no armed vessel to cope 
with their adversaries made no difference to their resolu- 
tion. With a small unarmed schooner and about thirty 
reckless or devoted young men hidden under hatches, 
the brothers set sail to capture the largest privateer 
ever seen, up to that time, upon the New England 



146 Narragansett Bay 

coast. The schooner might well put one in mind of a 
Quaker David advancing to meet the French Goliath, 
with an armament as foolish as that of the Shepherd 
Lad of Israel. 

Coming- in sic^ht of the Frenchman, the schooner made 
a feint of retreating, but was soon brought to by a shot 
that the privateer sent skipping across her bows. Sub- 
missive to the orders of the big adversary, the harm- 
less-looking little vessel came meekly up, but instead 
of hauling alongside, fell somewhat clumsily under the 
privateer's stern. It was the work of a very few min- 
utes for the brothers to marshal their concealed forces 
and clamber on deck. The moment of surprise and dis- 
illusion came for the foreigner when, instead of three or 
four sleepy traders, thirty or forty fighting Baptists and 
Quakers stood upon his deck, each one armed with gun 
or cutlass, and every one of them sublimely unconscious 
of anything absurd in demanding the surrender of a 
force that must have outnumbered them three to one. 
The fight was short. Having overpowered those on 
deck, the Wantons and their men coolly shot down every 
Frenchman who showed his head above hatches and the 
enemy soon surrendered. Great was the rejoicing in 
Newport when this important prize was brought in, and 
the young men were the lions of the day. 

Another exploit of these daring Friends was the cap- 
ture of a privateersman whom they had followed into 
one of the harbours either on Martha's Vineyard or the 
mainland, and approached under cover of a thick fog. 



Sea Rovers from the Bay 147 

In this case William Wanton in a small boat came close 
under the stern of his foe and drove wedges between 
her rudder and stern-post, so that she became unman- 
ageable. While in this situation the inferior boat of 
the Wantons approached in such a direction as to be 
out of the range of the French privateer's guns and 
soon compelled her to surrender. 

One Joseph Wanton, said to have been a Quaker 
preacher, and probably the same who was afterwards 
Lieutenant-Governor of Rhode Island, made a state- 
ment that is still preserved and which gives a singular 
picture of the life of a Friend of the Eighteenth century. 

" I Joseph Wanton, being one of the people called quakers, and 
conscientiously scrupulous about taking an oath, upon solemn af- 
firmation say that on the ist day of the month commonly called 
April, A.D. 1758, I sailed from Newport in the snow. King of Prussia, 
with a cargo of 124 hogsheads of rum, 20 barrels of rum, and other 
cargo. That on the 20th day of the month called May, I made 
Cape Mount on the west coast of Africa; that I ran down the coast 
and traded until I arrived at Annamibo, where, while at anchor, on 
tlie 23rd day of the month called July, when I had on board 54 
slaves, 20 ounces of gold dust and 65 hogsheads of rum, I was taken 
by a French privateer of 60 guns, fitted out at Bordeaux, called Le 
Compte de Ste Florentine, having on board between 500 and 600 
men, while my vessel had but three small pieces and 1 1 men." 

This is a curious showing for a man of peace who 
had conscientious scruples against taking an oath. Rum- 
selling and slave-trading were, as I have pointed out, 
both countenanced by the Rhode Island colonists gen- 
erally, and Wanton did no more in this direction than 
the majority of his neighbours. The history of any age 



148 Narragansett Bay 

must be read by the light of its own standards and not 
by the illumination of ours. 

The long list of privateers known to have sailed from 
Rhode Island ports during the various wars antedating 
the struggle for American independence, as well as dur- 
ing that time of national birth, show that this little State 
played no mean part in the defence of the American coasts. 

When, during the Spanish-French War, the Connec- 
ticut levies were to be transported to the tropics, the 
Tartar, a well-equipped vessel of great speed, was sent, 
under command of Capt. Daniel Fones, to act as con- 
voy. Fones had no idea of acting the part of the gentle 
shepherd and being content with frightening away the 
wolves that sought to harass his flock. Upon falling in 
with a French brigantine, he ruffled his feathers and 
went eagerly into a fight that soon resulted in adding 
the Frenchman to his fleet. Next a rich India ship, 
named the Heron, hove in sight and Fones swooped 
down upon her with a great spread of canvas and a 
bristling array of guns. This vessel also became a prize, 
and the Rhode Islander with his convoy bowled merrily 
along towards Carthagena, or whatever port had been 
designated in his orders. 

However, the game was not to be all one way. 
Shortly after the affair of the Heron had been satisfac- 
torily settled, another sail pierced the horizon, and it 
soon appeared that a great French frigate, far too heavy 
in armament and tonnage for the Tartar, was likely to 
make havoc amongr the merchantmen. 



Sea Rovers from the Bay 149 

Then Captain Fones adopted the tactics that a mother- 
quail uses when her young are endangered and she 
flutters away as though with a broken wing, till she has 
lured the hunter from her helpless brood. Hovering 
near the Frenchman, the Tartar tempted him to give 
chase, and then led him, always seemingly on the eve 
of capture, but always deceived, over miles of ocean, 
till the game was successfully played and the Yankee 
vessel skimmed away like a sea bird, leaving her pursuer 
probably wiser as well as sadder. 

Fones at another time led a little fleet, of which the 
Tartar was flagship, against a force of French and 
Indians that were making ready to cross the Bay of 
Fundy to attack Sir William Pepperill, then advancing 
to the siesfe of Louisburorh. A flotilla consistino- of 
several schooners and sloops, and a large number of 
canoes, was met and defeated by the Rhode Islanders 
with a promptness and thoroughness that aided materi- 
ally toward the reduction of the French stronghold. 
Fones was finally lost in a cold winter storm, during 
which the privateer Prince Frederick, which he then 
commanded, was wrecked upon Block Island. His life 
was one of adventure and daring to its very close. 

Another noted privateer who suff^ered shipwreck finally 
was Peter Marshall, who was disabled in a blow oft" 
Hatteras about the middle of the Eighteenth century. 

Durintr Kinor William's war an eno^aerement was 
fought off Newport (in 1690) between two Rhode Island 
privateers and several large vessels of the eiiem\-. It 



I50 



Narragansett Bay 



must have been a sight for which the Newport "cot- 
tagers," of this more peaceable day, would willingly ex- 
change an annual trial of speed between modern racing 
sloops or even a chance bombardment in the course of 
fleet manoeuvres, when a war game is in progress. Cap- 
tains Godfrey and Paine, who commanded the American 




CAPTAIN FONES'S SCHOONER " TARTAR " LURING THE FRENCH FRIGATE AWAY FROM 

THE MERCHANTMEN 



vessels, finally brought their adversaries in triumph into 
the harbour, and no doubt strutted on shore afterwards 
with all the pomp and circumstance of conquering 
heroes. The sea rover of that day did not leave his 
warlike insignia on his vessel and come ashore like any 
modest citizen. It would be the way of the Nineteenth 
or Twentieth centuries to sink an enemy's ships and 



Sea Rovers from the Bay 151 

scatter his forces broadcast on the face of the waters, 
and then stroll along the cliff or take a turn on Lenox 
Avenue as though such things were not worth mention- 
ing. The Eighteenth or Seventeenth century hero was 
a simpler being. He strutted, and wore a sword dan- 
gling at his heels and an arsenal of flintlock pistols in 
his belt, and curled his moustaches fiercely. He had 
not the least objection in the world to being told to 
his face that he was a hero. 

We have spoken of the close resemblance between 
some of the privateers and the pirates and buccaneers 
that infested the Southern waters. Captain Dennis 
was one of those who hung close to the border line. 
He took many prizes and defeated a score of the vessels 
of the French, and strano-e stories are told of his hiofh- 
handed proceedings. Upon one occasion, in company 
with a New York privateer, he captured a French vessel 
that had on board a number of colonists — or, as they 
were called "Creoles" — people who were not of negro 
or other inferior race. Bringing these unfortunates 
home Dennis sold them as slaves; and more is the 
wond(;r that in New England and New York he seems 
to have found a ready market for such questionable 
chattels. But retribution soon followed, for a number 
of Americans being seized by the French, they were 
threatened with a similar fate, till an exchange had been 
made. The Creoles had been scattered and it was 
necessary to hunt them out and repurchase them before 
they could be restored. 



152 Narragansett Bay 

In the light of such a record it seems hardly credible 
that the people of Providence or Newport should have 
stretched hemp for " pirates," yet there were several 
occasions upon which freebooters were hanged. On 
Broad Street, in Providence, to this day is shown a 
little grey house that has not been occupied for many a 
long year because of the haunting presence of the ghost 
of a pirate who was hung from a tree near by. 

It would not be possible even to record the names of 
a tenth of the number of those who in times past have 
carried letters of marque from Narragansett Bay, and 
have harried the ships of France and Spain and England 
on the high-seas, but we cannot omit to mention Cap- 
tain Read, of the Revolutionary time, who after many 
adventures was captured by one Crandall and impris- 
oned in the y ersey prison ship, in the Wallabout Basin. 
In company with another prisoner Read managed to 
escape, by a daring dash, from under the very eyes and 
fire of their British keepers, and succeeded in regaining 
Rhode Island, where our captain was soon engaged 
again in his accustomed work. Meeting Crandall not 
long afterwards, he gave battle and finally, after a hot 
conflict, succeeded in boarding the latter's vessel. To 
his great grief and chagrin when he reached the deck 
his enemy lay dead. 

Simeon Potter of Bristol, sometimes celebrated as 
a privateer, was a man of great force and of a somewhat 
contradictory character. He seems to have been at 
once generous and unforgiving, kind and vindictive, a 



Sea Rovers from the Bay 155 

rigid religionist and yet cruel in his demand for the 
ultimate eye or tooth in his dealings with his fellow- 
men. One of his contemporaries, Admiral Montagu, 
of the British Navy, named him every thing that was 
base, a pirate among other things, but this it must be 
remembered was the opinion of one to whom no good 
could appear in Rhode Island. 

Nearly thirty years ago, in the Overland Mont Jily, was 
published the translation of a letter supposed to have 
been written by a French priest of the Society of Jesus 
in the year i 744. This epistle, which seems to bear in- 
ternal evidence of its authenticity, describes with minute 
care the marauding expedition of one Captain .Simeon 
Potter, of " Rodelan," in which foray Fort d'Oyapoc 
was captured and the village around it looted and de- 
stroyed. Fort d'Oyapoc, be it said, was a French fort 
upon one of the islands to the west of Cayenne and 
" not far from .Surinam." It was a miserable little set- 
tlement and not worth looting, if we are to believe the 
account of the priest ; but poor and inconspicuous as it 
was, Captain Potter made it the scene of one of the 
reprisals so usual in the warfare of that day. 

Guided by Indians, the Rhode Island |)rivateer sur- 
prised and attacked the fort under cover of the night 
and was himself the only one on cither side? to be 
wounded in the encounter. The FrenchmcMi, with the 
sole exception of the priest and one negro slave, tied to 
the woods. The former, thinking that liis offices might 
be needed by some of his tlock, and imagining that lie 



156 Narragansett Bay 

might to some degree save or protect the sacred vessels 
and furnishings of the church, stayed at his post and 
was captured by the privateers, whom he has described 
with some minuteness. Captain Potter is spoken of 
as a young man, about thirty years of age, who kept 
sober — in marked contrast to most of his companions — 
and who evinced a more serious and thoughful mind, 
even going to the extent of expressing his regret that 
the depredations against which the Jesuit protested 
could not be checked, or the men restrained. 

" The first one who approached me," says Father 
Fauque, "was the captain himself. He was a man 
small in stature and not in any respect differing from 
the others in dress. He had his left arm in a sling, 
a sabre in his right hand, and two pistols in his belt. 
He told me that I was very welcome, that I had nothing 
to fear as no one would attempt my life." Again he 
says : " The captain, more susceptible of feeling than 
the others, told me that he would willingly yield to me 
what he was able to return but that he had no control 
over the will of the others." 

After holding this poor priest for a while a prisoner 
on board of the privateer's vessel, where he had the 
pain of seeing the plunder of his church and dwelling 
brought, while a marauding party under one of the lieu- 
tenants went upon an expedition to burn and pillage 
elsewhere, he was permitted to go ashore, ostensibly to 
gratify his desire to save papers and other property, 
but really, he explains, with the object of watching him 



Sea Rovers from the Bay 157 

to discover the location of treasure which his captors 
were convinced he had hidden. This naive writer's 
description of Rhode Island — which he calls Rodelan — 
and the Rhode Islanders was set down from impressions 
gathered from the privateers and is a laughably close 
burlesque upon the original. 

They [the privateers] were like a band of monkeys or of 
savages, who had never been away from the depths of the forest. 
A parasol or mirror, the smallest articles of furniture a little showy, 
excited their admiration. This did not surprise me when I learned 
that they had scarcely any cf)mmunication with Europe, and that 
Rodelan was a kind of little republic, which did not pay any 
tribute to the King of England, which elected its own governor 
every year and which had not even any silver money, but only notes 
for daily commerce. This is the impression I gained from all they 
told me. 

Captain Potter continued his depredations, and, ac- 
cording to this narrative, pillage and fire followed his 
progress. Arriving near Cayenne, several of his pris- 
oners still on board, he sent ashore his boatswain "an 
enereetic man, bold and determined," in a loni^-boat 
with nine men, to make a diversion which might pre- 
vent the French at Ca^'enne from sending relief to 
Machuria, to which place another part)- had been 
despatched. 

" When I first learned the departure of the long- 
boat," says Father F'auque, " I could not doubt but that 
the Lord wished to relieve me from my cai)tivity, per- 
suaded as I was that if the first part)- was not attacked 
the second would be." This event, so earnestly tlcsired 



158 Narragansett Bay 

by the priest, actually took place, for soon after com- 
mencing their work of pillage the boatswain and his 
crew were attacked by a force of Frenchmen, who suc- 
ceeded, after killinor three of the ten, in making: the 
remainder prisoners. Not knowing the fate of his peo- 
ple. Captain Potter was on the look-out from his vessel 
when he discerned several boats, full of men, setting- 
out in the direction of Machuria. He expressed a 
belief that not only were these people French soldiers 
going to the relief of that place, but that the boatswain 
and his men had been captured. 

It would seem that that officer, whose instructions 
had been only to reconnoitre, had been pushed by his 
zeal to make a landing, contrary to the expectation or 
wish of the commander. Subsequently the priest was 
exchanged for the captured crew of the long-boat. 

An interesting glimpse of the equipment and arma- 
ment of a privateer of that day is given in the following 
words : " He was thoroughly armed as a privateer — 
sabres, pistols, guns, lances, grenades, balls filled with 
bitumen and sulphur, grape shot — -nothing was want- 
ing . , . they placed two swivel guns in the win- 
dows besides the twelve that were on deck alone the 
sides of the ship." 

Various other captures were made in the course of 
this expedition and it is little wonder that the reverend 
chronicler should use in referring to Captain Potter 
and his vessel the word corsazi% which may be trans- 
lated either privateer or pirate as one's inclination 



Sea Rovers from the Bay 159 

leads. Through all the account here referred to the 
Captain is pictured as superior to his crew, both in his 
sobriety and humanity, and cjuite unable to control 
them in many of the details of their destructive work. 

The tales of the old sea rovers of Narrao^ansett are 
without end ; every family has its traditions of deeds of 
daring, and hairbreadth escapes. I have selected for 
this chapter a few of the more typical stories, illus- 
trating the independence, the fertility in resource, the 
courage and love of adventure that were characteristic 
of the Rhode Island settlers, and were more fully 
developed by the conditions of their mode of life. 



Chapter VII 

The " Gaspee " Affair and Others 

IT is quite as important for a country to have a 
historian as to have a history, if aught that it has 
done or suffered is to serve in the way of warning 
or encouragement for posterity. The Puritan settle- 
ments in Massachusetts are notable examples of the 
advantage of possessing both the story and the story 
teller. From the days of Cotton Mather to those of 
Emerson, a ready pen has always been at the service of 
the Bay State commonwealth, to record every happen- 
ing, and if the pen has sometimes extenuated and per- 
haps, once in a way, has set down something in malice, 
the main point has been achieved in celebrating local 
patriotism or the strange procession of local events. 

In marked contrast to the genius that has exploited 
the greatness of Massachusetts has been the silence that 
has brooded over the affairs of other colonies and states, 
her neighbours. New York and New Jersey along with 
Connecticut, were almost persuaded of their intrinsic in- 
feriority, standing very much in the position of sturdy 
but silent boys in the presence of an over-praised brother 
who chances to be the family marvel. It counted no- 

i6o 



The " Gaspee " Affair and Others i6i 

thing to the city that has its feet on Manhattan Ishmd 
and its arms all over the world, that it had its own 
tea parties and other deeds of resistance to the hated 
Stamp Act ; that it fought its fight and suffered its pain 
and wrought out its magnificent destiny as well as 
another. To what end was it all done — lacking a 
scribe ? 

As for little Rhode Island, her manifest destiny was 
to do things, not to talk or write about them. She had 
acquired a taste for independence that by the time the 
struggle with England was imminent had become a 
controlling habit. Rhode Island did not cast off the 
British yoke — she simply refused to put it on; she 
denied ever having worn it. The strenuous efforts 
made from time to time by the British Government to 
replenish its depleted exchequer by the imposition or 
collection of duties on American commerce, were not 
less earnest than the efforts of Rhode Island merchants 
and shipmasters to avoid paying tribute. To put a 
stop to what was stigmatised as illegal trading, armed 
vessels were sent to assist the revenue officers in the 
discharge of their duties. 

Among the first of these vessels was the schooner S/. 
Jolui, commanded by Lieutenant Hill. She arrived in 
1764 and was immediately regarded as an enem\- to 
the commerce of the Colony and her every movement 
watched with jealous eyes. Among other unpopular 
proceedings Hill followed to sea a brig that was said to 
have discharged a cargo at Howland's Ferry without 



1 62 Narragansett Bay 

observing the formality of declaring it or paying duties, 
and captured her, bringing her in triumph to New- 
port. The people of the Colony, exasperated by this 
and other high-handed proceedings, fitted a schooner to 
attack the 6V. John, but were at the last moment pre- 
vented from carrying out their purpose by the arrival of 
a British war-ship in Newport Harbour. Balked of 







THE WARWICK SHORE ACROSS COWESETT BAY 

their revenge, the crowd proceeded to Goat Island, 
where they seized the fort and turned and fired the 
guns upon the man-of-war. This seems to have been 
the first act of actual resistance to British pretensions 
in any of the American colonies and is an important 
incident of the pre-revolutionary story. 

Other war-ships became more or less embroiled with 
the Rhode Islanders, and the trouble increased as they 



The " Gaspee " Affair and Others 163 

persisted in impressing- seamen from Rhode Island 
merchantmen. A brig, just arrived at home after a 
long voyage, expected eagerly by those who had rela- 
tives and friends among her crew and, we must not 
doubt, bringing hearts quite as eager for the home 
coming, was stopped when in sight of land by the 
English war vessel Maidstone, and her entire crew im- 
pressed. In retaliation about five hundred men of 
Newport seized one of the Maidstoiie s boats, dragged 
it through the streets of the town and burned it on the 
common in front of the court house, while a crowd, 
composed of the major part of the inhabitants of New- 
port, witnessed and applauded the deed. During the 
proceeding there was no attempt at interference on the 
part of the authorities. 

Captain Reid, of the sloop Liberty, annoyed the 
merchants and made himself generally unpopular 
among the Rhode Islanders, by endeavouring to en- 
force obnoxious revenue laws. He was an officer of 
the King's navy and his vessel was regularly com- 
missioned to assist the customs ofiicers in Rhode Island, 
but in carrying out his instructions it is more th;ui prob- 
able that he was more strenuous than discreet or con- 
ciliatory. A captain named Packwood, having suffered 
at the hands of Captain Reid, visited the Liberty for 
the purpose of expostulating, but was roughly handled, 
his boat was fired upon and his life endangered. En- 
raged at this brutal performance, to which it is doubtful 
if Reid was personally a party, the people of Newport 



1 64 Narragansett Bay 

went en masse on board the Liberty, cut her cables and 
allowed her to drift ashore on Goat Island, where she 
was finally burned. 

Not satisfied with the punishment meted to the 6"/. 
John, the Maidstone, and the Liberty, the English 
Government persisted in antagonising the liberty-loving 
Rhode Islanders by renewed efforts to enforce the 
revenue laws. The Gaspee, a schooner of eight guns, 
with Lieutenant Dudingston in command, arrived in 
Narragansett Bay in the spring of 1772 to carry on the 
work for which the St. John and the Liberty had proved 
ineffectual. Dudingston was quite as high-handed as 
Reid and soon incurred the enmity of the people as his 
predecessors had done. The position of a revenue offi- 
cer in that colony was not unlike that of a factor in 
Ireland at a later date. 

It would seem from correspondence afterwards ex- 
changed between Governor Wanton and the Earl of 
Hillsborough, that the commander of the Gaspee did 
not take the trouble to acquaint the former with the 
arrival of his vessel, her mission, or his authority, till the 
Governor had by several letters demanded such inform- 
ation. Governor Wanton further complained of illegal 
seizures and oppressions on the part of Lieutenant 
Dudinofston, 

Darius Sessions, the Deputy Governor of Rhode 
Island, wrote to Governor Joseph Wanton at Newport, a 
letter dated from Providence on the 21st of March, 1772, 
as follows : 




GOVKKNOR JUbEl'll WAMON 



165 



The " Gaspee " Affair and Others 167 

Sir ; The inhabitants of this town have of late been much dis- 
quieted in their minds by repeated advices being brought of a 
schooner which for some time past hath cruised in the Narragansett 
Bay and much disturbed our navigation. She suffers no vessel to 
pass, not even packet boats, or others of an inferior kind, without a 
strict examination, and where any sort of unwillingness is discovered 
they are compelled to submit by an armed force. Who he is and by 
what authority he assumes such a conduct it is thought needs some 
inquiry and I am requested by a number of gentlemen of this town 
on their behalf to acquaint your Honor therewith, and that you 
would take the matter into consideration and if the commander of 
that schooner has not as yet made proper application and been 
duly authorised in his proceedings, that some proper measures 
be taken to bring him to account. It is suspected that he hath 
no legal authority to justify his conduct, and his commission, if he 
has any, is some antiquated paper, more of a fiction than anything 
else, and this seems to be confirmed by Mr. Thomas Greene who 
says he saw it and believes it to be no other than the commis- 
sion the famous Reid had; who lost his sloop at Newport, or some- 
thing else of no validity. In consequence of the above mentioned 
application" T have consulted with the Chief Justice thereon, who is 
of opinion that no commander of any vessel has any right to use any 
authority in the body of the colony without previously applying to 
the Governor and showing his warrant for so doing, and also being 
sworn to a due exercise of his office, and this he informs me has 
been the common custom in this colony. 

I am Sir 
With the Greatest Respect Your Honor's most Obdt and Humble 
Serv- 

Darius Sessio.vs. 
Gov. Wanton. 

The brief correspondence which took place between 
Governor Wanton on the one hand and Lieutenant 
Dudingston, commander of the Gaspee, upon the other, 
showed how essentially different were the view points 
of the two men. Wanton's just claim that an officer of 
the Navy, professing to have instructions to assist the 



1 68 Narragansett Bay 

revenue officers in their work, should show his commis- 
sion to the Gov^ernor of the Colony was treated with 
something very like contempt. Soon this correspond- 
ence was submitted by Dudingston to his superior, 
Admiral Montagu, and elicited from him an outrageous 
epistle to the Governor, bristling with offensive criti- 
cisms and personal reflections. The Admiral evidently 
did not comprehend the status of a colony living under 
such a charter, and electino; its Governor in a manner 
quite democratic. Montagu's ridiculous assumption of 
a right to lecture and advise a man of Wanton's position 
and character drew forth from that ofentleman a ditrnified 
though trenchant reply, and the correspondence on both 
sides was then submitted to the Secretary of State for 
the Colonies. 

It is interesting to note an Englishman's opinion 
of the character of the man who was put in command 
of the British squadron in American waters at this 
critical time, when only the most consumate diplomacy 
might have prevented an open rupture between the 
Mother Country and the Colonies. I quote from Tre- 
velyan's Anicrican Revohition : 

Sandwich, who had succeeded Hawke at the admiralty (1771) 
had appointed an officer with his own surname, and (as it is super- 
fluous to state) of his own party, to command the powerful squadron 
now stationed in American waters. Admiral Montagu, who came 
fresh from hearing the inner mind of the Bedfords, as expressed 
in the confidence of the punch-bowl, was always ready to make 
known his opinion of New England and its inhabitants in epithets 
which, on a well ordered man-of-war, were seldom lieard abaft the 
mast. In comparison with him (so it was said) an American free- 



The " Gaspee " Affair and Others 169 

holder, living in a log house twenty feet scjuare, was a well bred and 
polite inan. . . . The navy, like every profession, has its bad 
bargains, and the J.ieutenant in coniinand of the schooner Gaspci\ 
which was watching the coast of Rhode Island, set himself to trans- 
lating the language used on the quarter-deck of the flagship into 
overt acts. He treated the farmers on the island much as the 
Saracens of the middle ages treated the coast population of 
Italy. . . . The injured parties made their voices heard and 
tlie case was laid before the admiral, who approved the conduct of 
his sul)ordinate ofificer, antl announced thai, as sure as any jjeople 
from Newport should attempt to rescue a vessel, he would hang 
them as pirates. 

The Gaspee was finally dealt with l)y the exasperated 
inhabitants of Rhode Island, and the spirited narrative 
of that affair in the lancruaore of one of the actors in it is 
well worth read i no-. 

Col. E[)hraini Bowen wrote as follows : 

In the year 1772 the British Government had stationed at New- 
port, Rhode Island, a sloop of war, with her tender, a schooner, 
called the Gaspee . . . for the purpose of preventing the clan- 
destine landing of articles subject to the payment of duty. 
On the loth day of June 1772, Captain Thomas lindsay left New- 
port in his packet from Providence, about noon, with the wind at 
the north, and soon after the Gaspee was under sail in pursuit 
of Lindsay and continued the chase as far as Namquit Point, which 
runs off from the farm at Warwick, about seven miles below Provi- 
dence. . . . Lindsay was standing easterly with the tide on ebb 
al)OUt two hours, when he hove about, at the end of Nanuiuit Point 
and stood to the westward; and Dudingston in close chase, changed 
his course and ran on the point, near its end and grounded. 

Lindsay continued his course up the river and arrived at Provi- 
dence about sunset, where he immediately informed Mr. John Brown, 
one of our first and most respected merchants, of the situation of the 
Gaspee. He immediately concluded that she would remain immov- 
al)le until after midnight and that now an opportunity offered of 
j)utting an end to the trouble and vexation she daily caused. 



170 Narragansett Bay 

Mr. Brown immediately resolved upon her destruction and he 
forthwith directed one of his trusty shipmasters to collect eight of 
the largest boats in the harbour, with five oars to each, to have the 
oars and rowlocks well muffled to prevent noise, and to place them 
at Fenno's wharf, nearly opposite the dwelling of Mr. James Sabin, 
who kept a house of board and entertainment for gentlemen, be- 
ing a house purchased, a few years afterwards, by the late Welcome 
Arnold, one of our enterprising merchants. . . 

About the time of the shutting up of the shops, soon after sunset, 
a man passed along the main street, beating a drum and informing 
the inhabitants of the fact that the Gaspee was aground on Namquit 
Point, and would not float again until three o'clock the next morn- 
ing; and inviting those persons who felt a disposition to go and 
destroy that troublesome vessel to repair in the evening to Mr. 
James Sabin's house. About nine o'clock I took my father's gun 
and my powder horn and bullets and went to Mr. Sabin's, and found 
the south east room full of people, where I loaded my gun, and all 
remained there till about ten o'clock, some casting bullets in the 
kitchen and others making preparations for departure, when orders 
were given to cross the street to Fenno's wharf and there em- 
bark. ... A sea captain acted as steersman of each boat, of 
whom I recollect Capt. Abraham Whipple, Capt. John B. Hopkins 
(with whom I embarked) and Capt. Benjamin Dunn. A line from 
right to left was soon formed, with Capt. Whipple on the right and 
Capt. Hopkins on the right of the left wing (sic) 

The party thus proceeded till within about sixty yards of the 
Gaspee, when a sentinel hailed: " who comes there? " No answer. 
He hailed again, and no answer. 

In about a minute Dudingston, mounted on the starboard gun- 
wale, in his shirt, and hailed. No answer. He hailed again, when 
Capt. Whipple answered as follows: " I am the sheriff of the County 
of Kent, G — d d — n you. I have got a warrant to apprehend you 
G — d d — n you, so surrender, G — d d — n you! " 

I took a seat on the main thwart, near the larboard rowlock, with 
my gun by my right side facing forward. As soon as Dudingston 
began to hail, Joseph Bucklin, who was standing on the main 
thwart, by my right side, said to me, " Ephe, reach me your gun, I 
can kill that fellow. I reached it to him accordingly, when, during 
Captain Whipple's replying, Bucklin fired and Dudingston fell, and 



The " Gaspee " Affair and Others 171 

Bucklin exclaimed, " I have killed the rascal." In less than a min- 
ute after Capt. Whipple's answer the boats were alongside of the 
Gaspee and boarded without opposition. The men retreated below 
as Dudingston entered the cabin. 

As soon as it was discovered that he was wounded, John Mawnev, 
who had for two or three years been studying physic and surgery, 
was ordered to go into the cabin and dress Dudingston's wound, 
and I was ordered to assist him. . . . orders were given to the 
schooner's company to collect their clothing and everything belong- 
ing to them, and put them into their boats, as all of them were to be 
put on shore. . . . They departed and landed Dudingston at 
the old still-house wharf, at Pawtuxet, and put the chief into the 
house of Joseph Rhodes. 

Soon after all the party were ordered to depart, leaving one boat 
for the leaders of the expedition, who soon set the vessel on fire and 
consumed her to the water's edge. 

Among those whose names have been mentioned 
above as prominently connected with the burning of 
the Gaspee, we have noticed that of Abraham Whipple. 
John B. Hopkins, the son of Commodore Esek Hop- 
kins, and the nephew of that Stephen Hopkins who 
signed the Declaration of Independence, also served in 
the American Navy, John Mawney, mentioned as the 
physician who dressed Dudingston's hurts, was a man of 
great reading and reputed wisdom, we are told, but an 
infidel. John Brown, at whose call the men of Provi- 
dence had gathered for this daring act of retaliation, 
was a merchant of Providence and a descendant of the 
Rev. Chad Brown, who was one of Roger Williams asso- 
ciates. He was one of the most prominent citizens of 
the Colony. Another leader was Benjamin Page, a 
wealth)' shipmaster. Joe Bucklin, who was reputed 
to have shot Dudingston, was a rcstaratcur. well known 



172 



Narragansett Bay 



in Providence. Turpin Smith, another of the party, 
was in after years one of the most respected citizens of 
Providence, and indeed of Rhode Island. The last 
survivor of that rememberable exploit was Colonel 
Bovven, whose narrative has just been quoted. Fifty- 
four years after the scene described in these pages, four 
participants in the burning of the Gaspee were publicly 
honoured for the deed and v/ere driven in state, on the 
Fourth of July, through the streets of the city where 
once a price had been set upon their heads by the Brit- 
ish Crown. They were Ephraim Bowen, Benjamin 
Page, John Mavvney, and Turpin Smith. 

This affair created intense excitement not only in 
Rhode Island but throughout the American Colonies 
and the investigation which followed, instead of allay- 
ing the excitement, kept it at fever heat. It was a 
powerful incentive to resistance in the minds of the 
people, whose thoughts were thus gradually becoming 
familiar with the idea of armed self-protection against 
the efforts of the Crown to interfere with their rights 
and liberties. 

The deed accomplished, it clearly became the duty of 
all officers of the Crown or Colony to go through the 
form of an investigation and to offer suitable rewards 
for the apprehension of those who had taken part in the 
adventure. Into the investigation the officers of the 
Crown entered heartily and with a vigorous purpose 
to bring some one to justice, and the officers of the 
Colony, with tongue in cheek, made a great pretence 




THE 13URNING OF THIi " GASPEE " 



173 



The " Gaspee " Affair and Others 175 

of activity. The men, well known to every one in their 
city, and probably ere long to the whole Colony, walked 
unmolested while their case was being investigated and 
Governor and Kino^ were offering larofe sums for their 
arrest and conviction. 

First of all the Governor, as in duty bound, issued a 
proclamation that had a fierce sound and may have 
blinded the King's ministers and commissioners. 

By the Honourable Joseph Wanton Esquire, Governor, Captain- 
C'leneral and Commander-in-Chief of and over the English Colony 
of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, in New England, in 
America. 

A PROCLAMATION. 

Whereas, on Tuesday the 9''' inst. in the night a number of 
people, unknown, boarded his Majesty's armed schooner the Gaspee, 
as she lay aground on a point of land called Namquit, a little to the 
southward of Pawtuxet, in the colony aforesaid, who dangerously 
wounded William Duddingston, the commander, and by force took 
him with all his people put them into boats and landed them near 
Pawtuxet and afterwards set fire to the said schooner whereby she 
was totally destroyed. I have therefore thought fit by and wich the 
advice of such of his Majesty's Council as could be reasonably con- 
vened to issue this proclamation strictly chargmg and commanding 
all his Majesty's officers within the said colony, both civil and mil- 
itary, to exert themselves with the utmost vigilance to discover and 
apprehend the persons guilty of the aforesaid atrocious crime, that 
they may be brought to condign punishment, and I do hereby offer 
a reward of one hundred pounds sterling, money of Great l^ritain, 
to any person or persons who shall discover the perpetrators of the 
said villainy, to be paid immediately upon the conviction of any one 
or more of them. 

And the several sheriffs in the said Colony are hereby required 
forthwith to cause this proclamation to be posted up in the most 
public ])laces in each of the towns in their respective counties. 



176 Narragansett Bay 

Given under my hand and seal at arms at Newport this twelftli 
day of June in the twelfth year of the reign of his Most Sacred 
Mnjesty, George III by the Grace of God King of Great Britain 
and so forth. Anno Domini 1772. 

J. Wanton. 
By his Honour's Command 

tlENRY Ward, Secretary 

God Save the King. 

The followincr is Lieutenant Dudino-ston's account 
of the burning of the Gaspcc, transmitted by him to his 
superior officer as soon as he was able to write : 

Pawtuxet, 12"" June, 1772. 

Sir : On Wednesday morning about one o'clock, as His Majesty's 
schooner was lying upon a spite of land called Nancutt, the senti- 
nels discovered a number of boats coming down the river toward 
us. As soon as I was acquainted with it, I came upon deck and 
hailed the boats, forbidding them to come near the schooner, or I 
should order them to be fired upon. They made answer, tliey had 
the sheriff with them and must come on board. I told them the 
sheriff could not be admitted on board at that time of night, on 
which they set up a halloo and rowed as fast as they could towards 
the vessel's bows. I was then using every means in my power to 
get the guns to bear upon them, which I could not effect as they 
came right ahead of the vessel, she being aground. 

I then ordered the men to come forward with tlieir small arms 
and prevent them from boarding. As I was standing myself to 
oppose them, and making a stroke with my sword, at the man who 
was attempting to come up, at that instant I found myself disabled 
in my left arm and shot through the groin. I then step])ed from the 
gunwale with an intention to order them to retire to close quarters, 
but soon saw that most of tliem were knocked down and myself 
twice, after telling them I was mortally wounded. They damned 
me and said I was not wounded ; if I was my own people had done 
it. As loss of blood made me drop down upon deck, they ordered 
me to beg my life and commanded the people to surrender. As I 
saw there was no possibility of defending the vessel against such 
numbers, who were in every respect armed and commanded with 



The ''Gaspee" Affair and Others 177 

regularity, by one who personated the sheriff, I thought it best for 
the people's preservation to propose to them that I would order 
them to surrender if they assured me they should not be hurt, which 
they did. I then called out which was immediately echoed by the 
people around me, that I had given them orders to surrender. They 
hurried all the people below and ordered them up one by one and 
tied their hands behind their backs, then ordered them into differ- 
ent boats. I then begged they would either dispatch me or suffer 
my wounds to be dressed. Upon that they allowed my servant to 
be unbound, to get me things for dressing and carried me below. 
But what was my surprise when I came down in the cabin, two 
surgeons were ordered down from the deck, to dress me, who were 
furnished with drops and began to scrape lint for that purpose. Dur- 
ing this time I had the opportunity of observing the persons of about 
a dozen who were in the cabin. They appeared to me to be mer- 
chants and masters of vessels, who were at my bureau reading and 
examining my papers. They promised to let me have the schooner's 
books and my clothes ; instead of which, as they were handing me 
up to go in the boat, they threw them overboard, or into some of the 
boats. I was soon afterwards thrust into a boat, almost naked. 
During the time they were rowing me on shore, I had an opportunity 
of observing the boat, which appeared to me to be a very large long 
boat. I saw by the man who steered her a cutlass lying by him, and 
directing the men to have their arms ready. As soon as they put 
off the sheriff gave them orders to land me on some neck and the 
boat to come off immediately and told me if I did not consent to 
pay the value of the rum I must not expect to have anything saved. 
I made answer whatever reparation law would give I was ready and 
willing ; as to my things they might do with them as they pleased. 
They were accordingly going to land me on this neck, which I told 
them they had better throw me overboard. One man, who had a 
little more humanity than any of the rest said they had better land 
me on the point of Pawtuxet. As I was unable to stand they un- 
bound five of the men and gave them a blanket to carry me up. 
When I was half way on shore I heard some of the schooner's guns 
go off and heard the people say she was on fire. I had not been 
carried far when the people exclaimed, I was on an island, and they 
saw no house on which they laid me down and went in quest of one. 
Soon after they came to acquaint me they saw one, which I was 



178 Narragansett Bay 

carried to, a man was immediately despatched to Providence for a 
surgeon. A little after the people joined me with a midshipman ; 
all of whom I could persuade 1 sent on board His Majesty's sloop 
Beaver. The schooner is utterly destroyed and everything ajjper- 
taining to her, me and the schooner's company. If 1 live I am not 
without hope of being able to convict some of principal people that 
were with them. The pain, with the loss of blood rendered me 
incapable of informing you before of the ])articulars. There are 
none of the people anyways wounded, but bruised with handspikes. 
I am Sir, your most Humble Servant, 

W. DUDDINGSTON. 

Antedating the report of Lieutenant Duddingston to 
Admiral Montagu, then at Boston, a communication 
was addressed from that officer to Governor Wanton, as 
follows : 

Boston, Eleventh June, 1772. 

Sir : Enclosed I transmit Your Excellency a disposition taken 
before me of the piratical proceedings of the j^eople of Providence 
in Rhode Island government, by attacking His Majesty's schooner 
with an armed force, wounding her commander in a dangerous man- 
ner and then setting her on fire. I am to request Your Excellency 
will use such methods as you shall think proper for apprehending 
and bringing the offenders to justice. I am now dispatching a sloop 
to England witli the account I enclose to you and am Your Excel- 
lency's most obedient Humble Servant, 

J. Montagu. 

His Excellency, Governor Wanton. 

The deposition of Williani Dickenson, examined as 
to his knowledge of the burning of the Gaspcc, was en- 
closed with this letter. 

The report made to the British Secretary of State, 
Lord Hillsborough, by Governor Wanton, upon the de- 
struction of the Gaspee, contains two statements that 



The " Gaspee " Affair and Others 179 

deserve particular attention. The first of these is to 
the effect that imniediateh' aftc^r the loss of his vessel, 
and while still thought to be fatall\- wounded, Lieuten- 
ant Duddingston refused to yive Mr. Sessions, the Dep- 
uty Governor, any account of the events of the niL,dit of 
tlu' 9th of June "till he had done it to his commanding 
officer, at a court-martial, to which if he lived he must 
be called ; but if he died, he desired it might all die with 
him." There is something significant in this reticence 
wh(-n we recall the fact that Lieutenant Duddingston 
cuuld hardly be supposed to be ignorant of the name or 
pt-rson of at least one of the attacking party and a state- 
ment from him would probably have led to the convic- 
tion of several of the leaders. We have the testimony 
of the surgeon who bound his wounds and attended him 
in the cabin of the Gaspcc (John Mawney) that the 
lieutenant offered him a gold buckle, in gratitude for 
his s(!rvices, and that, although he declined this, he after- 
wards acc(^pted a silver one, which he wore for many 
years. He furthermore says, speaking of an interrup- 
tion that occurred after he had dressed the wounds of 
the officer: " During this, Mr. Duddingston was carried 
out of the room, and I never saw him afterwards, not- 
withstanding / Jiad several invitations, through Dr. 
Henry Sterling." It is hard to belie\'e that had Dud- 
dingston desired to earn the rewards, amounting to 
thousands of dollars, offered bv the British Crown and 
by the Rhode Island Assembly, for the persons who 
burned the Gaspee, he might have done so. 



i8o Narragansett Bay 

A pertinent statement made by Governor Wanton 
bears upon another phase of the subject and stands in 
refutation of the idea presented in nearly all accounts 
of the affair, that the Colony of Rhode Island was a 
nest of illicit traders. 

As a proof, My Lord, that the trade of this colony stands upon 
as fair and legal a footing as the trade of any part of His Majesty's 
dominions, out of two hundred sail of vessels which have en- 
tered this port [Newport] since the ist day of May last [letter written 
June i6th] only two in that number have been prosecuted and 
condemned for breach of acts of trade, one of which belongs to 
Massachusetts Bay, notwithstanding they have been searched and 
rummaged with the greatest severity. 

The testimony of Governor Wanton upon this sub- 
ject must be taken as of the greatest weight and au- 
thority, because of his character and standing and for 
the additional reason that he was thoroughly loyal to 
the British Crown, as he afterwards proved by adhering 
to it in the Revolutionary struggle, suffering in conse- 
quence the confiscation of his American estate on Pru- 
dence Island. 

To quote once more from Trevelyan : 

Thurlow, in his capacity as Attorney General, denounced the 
crime [the burning of the Gaspee'\ as of a deeper dye than piracy 
and reported that the whole business was of five times the magni- 
tude of the stamp act. . . . By a royal order the council and 
authorities of Rhode Island were commanded to deliver tlie culprits 
into the hands of the Admiral, with a view to their being tried in 
London. . . . Stephen Hopkins, the old Chief Justice of Rhode 
Island [whose nephew was one of the party that burned the 
Gaspee\ refused to lend his sanction to their arrest, in face of the 
destiny that awaited them. . . . The estimable and amiable 



The " Gaspee " Affair and Others i8i 

Dartmouth, who was now Secretary for lie Colonies, contrived to 
hush up a difference which, as he was told by a wise and friendly 
correspondent, if it had been pushed to an extreme issue, would 
have set the continent into a fresh flame. 

Chief Justice Horsmanden, writing from New York 
to the Earl of Dartmouth on February 20, i ']']},, presents 




TIVERTON WHARVES. THE SITE OF JOSEPH WANTON's SHIPYARDS 

his view of Rhode Island at that day — a view not at all 
sympathetic or favourable, but perhaps not less valuable 
on that account. He was a commissioner in tlic Gaspce 
affair. 

On my arrival at that ])lace [Rhode Island] on the 3Tst of Deer. 
I was surprised to find that the main of our errand was become 
public, which in prudence was to be kept secret ; nevertheless your 
Lord's letter to Gov. Wanton [relative to the burning of the Gas- 
pee\ was published in the Boston weekly paper and spread indus- 
triously all over New England. However amazing to us, upon 



1 82 Narragansett Bay 

enquiry it came out that the Gov. had communicated it to the 
Assembly, who had got it printed : upon expostulating with the 
Gov. upon it he said he by law was obliged to communicate all dis- 
patches from the Ministry to his corporation, and sworn to do so : 
that such dispatches were usually directed to the Gov. and Company. 
. . . My Lord, as to the Gov'., if it deserves that name, it is a 
downright democracy. The Gov. is a mere nominal one and there- 
fore a cypher, without power or authority, entirely controlled by the 
populace, elected annually as all other magistrates and officers what- 
soever. The Gov. treated the commissioners with great decency 
and respect, and to do that gentleman justice, behaved with great 
propriety as a commissioner, except in communicating your Lord- 
ship's letter to the corporation, which indeed he seemed constrained 
to do under the above circumstances. 

It was perhaps the first time that this conscientious 
royahst of the eighteenth century had been brought 
face to face with a practical democracy and the near 
view did not appeal to him. To one of his habits of 
thought it was simply no government — nothing worth 
the name. These people actually elected whom they 
pleased to govern them and insisted that he govern in 
no other way than as they pleased. What w^ell-consti- 
tuted British mind, trained to the grooves of a well-or- 
dered officialdom, could be expected to view it with 
anything less than disgust. 

Commissioner Horsmanden reports that upon the 
first news of the " villainy " Governor Wanton issued a 
proclamation offering a thousand pounds reward for the 
apprehension of the perpetrators, " but without effect." 
He also refers to the testimonv of the neQ^ro witness as 
being of doubtful value, then returns to the subject of 
Rhode Island's republicanism and the breadth of her 



The "Gaspee" Affair and Others 183 

charter. One very remarkable feature of the Gaspee 
affair is that although the attack upon the King's vessel 
had been made openly and in a sense publicly, and the 
names of the participants could not by any means have 
been a profound secret even to the officers of the 
colony or to the commander of the Gaspcc, yet no one 
from Providence, Newport, or Bristol, nor from the 
officers of the Colony or Crown, came forward to claim 
the large reward offered for the apprehension of the 
ringleaders. The amounts offered by both the King 
and the Colony amounted to a sum that would have 
been regarded as a comfortable fortune at that 
time. 

Naturally the question arises, what was the incentive 
to silence, or the restraining influence that prevented 
betrayal ? It may reasonably be supposed that public 
sentiment was so strongly enlisted on the side of the 
patriot party that the lot of informer would have been 
one of extreme unpopularity, if not of peril. There 
seems to be no other solution in view of all the facts, 
to a silence so remarkable. The whole population of 
Providence must be charged with the responsibility or 
credit for this daring adventure. 

The Liberty Party, as it was called, had in 1772 be- 
come a numerous and weighty faction in New England 
and the neighbouring colonies. To those who advo- 
cated resistance to the interference of Great I)ritain, 
the events in Rhode Island were of supreme interest. 
Thousands of people in America waited anxiously the 



184 Narragansett Bay 

result of the enquiry that was immediately set on foot 
by the Crown. 

The torch that fired the Gaspee made a beacon fire 
for all the friends of freedom in the colonies, and every- 
where men were asking what the outcome was to be. 

Governor Hutchinson, in August of that year, wrote 
from Boston that : 

People in this province, both friends and enemies of the gov- 
ernment are in great expectation from the late affair in Rhode 
Island of the burning of the King's schooner Gaspee, and they con- 
sider the manner in which the news of it will be received in Eng- 
land and the measures to be taken decisive. Jf it is passed over 
without a full enquiry and due resentment our Liberty people ^vill 
think they may with impunity coiniuit any acts of violence, be they ever so 
atrocious, and the friends of government will dispond and give up all 
hopes of being able to witJistand the faction. 

The italics have been added to emphasise the sig- 
nificance of this utterance, which contains in a nutshell 
a confession of the extreme peril to which democratical 
ideas had brouofht monarchical interests in America. 
It shows also how all eyes were directed to Rhode 
Island, who had eight years before, even previous to the 
passage of the obnoxious Stamp Act, taken the initiative 
in resisting the aggressions of the Crown, and who now, 
a year in precedence of the so-called Boston Tea Party, 
exhibited for the third time an armed revolt against 
the officers of the King. 

It has been my purpose, in going thus minutely into 
this story of the destruction of the schooner Gaspee, to 
indicate its foremost rank among the important events 



The "Gaspee" Aftair and Others 185 

preceding and leading up to the American Revolution. 
Reread the words of Hutchinson, of Thurlow, and of 
Dartmouth, already quoted. 

" If it is passed over," wrote Hutchinson, "our liberty 
people will think they may with impunity commit any 

acts and the friends of Government will 

dispond and give up all hopes of being able to with- 
stand the faction." 

" The whole business is of five times the magni- 
tude of the Stamp Act, " declared Attorney General 
Thurlow. "If not hushed up it will set the continent in 
a flame," said Dartmouth's correspondent. 

This act was not the movement of an irresponsible 
mob. Here was no unguided, obscure party of mad- 
cap youths, with painted faces and the mummery of an 
Indian disguise, following a sudden impulse to destroy. 
The population of a city met openly, called by a public 
crier and roused by the beat of a drum through the 
streets, to a deliberation presided over by men of in- 
fluence and standing ; and they carried out their enter- 
prise without concealment, though no one could doubt 
that the penalty of death would be inflicted if the British 
Government laid hands upon any one of them. 

John Brown's raid, in its influence upon public 
sentiment in America, was insignificant compared with 
the effect produced by the burning of the (ias/>ci- and 
for courage in planning, boldness in execution, antl una- 
nimity in resistance to tyranny, the earlier event stands 
without a parallel in American history. 



1 86 Narragansett Bay 

It is a curious and sad commentary upon the fol- 
low-my-leader methods of many alleged historians 
that not a few text-books purporting to treat of pre- 
Revolutionary events, have neglected to mention the 
burning of the Gaspce. 



Chapter \'III 
Rhode Island in the Revohition 

IT was the spirit of Rhode Island tliat led the oth(;r col- 
onies in th(* de\-elopment of the liberty idea ; it was 
little Rhode Island that took the initiative in revcjlt 
against the tyrannous ay;^ressions of the mother coun- 
tr\-, setting a pace for larger and wealthier common- 
wealths to follow ; it was the AssemhK- of RhocU; Island 
that on the 4th of May, 1776, made a declaration of 
independence, anticipatin;^ hy two months that other 
Declaration, signed at Philadelphia by the representa- 
tives of the colonies. 

Such a prelude might lead one to expect a magnifi- 
cent war drama, the stress and throes of a terrific strug- 
gle, or deeds of martial daring that should eclipse the 
exploits of ancient Macedonia or Rome 

What in fact do we find ? Simply tliat from almost 
the commencement of the war, for ni-arl\- three \t-ars, 
the brave little colony was gripi)ed in the mailed hand 
of the enemy, her gates guard<-d and her jxjwcrs 
crippled. Still then- were moments ot achievement, in- 
teresting if meagre episodes, a not altogether forgotten 

1S7 



1 88 Narragansett Bay 

record of stirring events and the long story of almost 
continuous hardship and suffering. 

When the nev/s of Lexington came to Newport, great 
was the rejoicing. That was in April, 1775. Two 
months later two vessels, the Washington and Katie, 
were chartered and put under the command of Captain 
Abraham Whipple. One might almost say that the 




THE BRITISH FLEET IN NARRAGANSETT BAY 



navy of the United States was born in Rhode Island, 
for not only did she build and man some of the very 
earliest vessels to take the sea against England, provid- 
ing many times more than her proportionate share of 
such vessels during the war, but she also gave to the 
country more captains and other naval officers than any 
of the other States. Esek Hopkins has been called the 
first Commodore of the American Navy, but his fame is 
hardly as bright as that of Whipple, of whom the stories 



Rhode Island in the Revolution 189 

told would fill a separate volume. Sir James Wallace, 
commanding the frigate Rose, had commenced a devas- 
tating tour of the coast, burning and threatening, when 
an armed tender belonging to the Rose fell in with a 
sloop commanded by Capt. Whipple. After an inter- 
esting fight the Rhode Islander drove his adversary 
ashore on Conanicut Island and made a prize of her. 
The exasperated Englishman wrote a note to the per- 
verse American captain, reminding him of his share in 
burning the Gaspee several years before and concluding 
in these words : " I will hang you at the yard-arm — 
James Wallace." 

To this message Whipple good-naturedly replied : 
"To Sir James Wallace, Sir: Always catch a man be- 
fore you hang him. Abraham Whipple." 

The breathings of threatenings and slaughter in which 
Wallace indulcred and his immediate efforts to carry 
them into effect in Rhode Island led to the equipping 
of two vessels which formed the small foundation of the 
American navy. The Washington, first of these gun- 
boats, had a crew of eighty men and was armed with ten 
4 pounders and fourteen swivels, while the other was 
still smaller. 

A few days after " Commodore " Whipple had taken 
command of his miniature fleet, the Rose frigate, to- 
gether with a sloop of war, tenders, and five prize ves- 
sels, lay off Newport, when other sails appeared farther 
up the bay and lured the Rose and her companion to 
crive chase. No sooner were the war vessels out of the 



190 Narragansett Bay 

way than the people of Newport salHecl out in boats, re- 
took the prizes and sent them safe out of reach. For 
this and other offences the irate Wallace threatened to 
bombard Newport, but was in some unknown way de- 
flected from his purpose and finally sailed away. 

In August more vessels were secured for defence, and 
the Rhode Island delegates in Congress instructed " to 
use their whole influence for building at the Continental 
expense a fleet of sufficient force for the protection of 
these colonies, and for employing them in such manner 
and places as will most effectually annoy our enemies 
and contribute to the common defence of these colonies." 

This movement on the part of Rhode Island led 
directly to the establishment of a National Navy. We 
find Sir James Wallace through all this time terrorising 
the towns along the coast and upon the shores of Nar- 
ragansett Bay. He threatened Newport and Providence 
and finally bombarded and partly burned Bristol, his 
leniency in the first and second case and his unprovoked 
brutality in the third being equally inexplicable to sane 
people. 

Through that summer and fall the breach widened 
and the preparations for war became more resolute and 
unequivocal. A test oath was required to weed out 
Tories ; the Governor, Joseph Wanton, was deposed and 
Nicholas Cooke elected in his place. An effort was 
made to raise land forces and the inhabitants were put 
upon a w^ar footing, all those able to bear arms being 
bidden to hold themselves in readiness. There was some 



Rhode Island in the Revolution 191 

attempt at building defences, and in the summer of 1776 
work was commenced upon a fort at Brenton's Point. 
On the eve of the battles of Long Island and Harlem 
Heights, State troops were sent to Washington's aid, 
and already a number of Rhode Island men. chief among 
whom was Washington's trusted friend General Greene, 
were doing good service in the Continental Army. 

There were several false alarms and reported advances 
of the enemy before he finally appeared upon Narragan- 
sett Bay in force, but at length in the last days of 1776 
a fleet composed of a number of frigates and ships of 
the line appeared, and, landing such an overwhelming 
body of troops that resistance was out of the question, 
took possession of Newport. The little American army 
of six hundred men that were on Rhode Island went 
into camp at Tiverton and Bristol. 

The three years of the British occupation of Newport 
were direful times for Rhode Island. Her commerce 
was crippled, her merchants impoverished, her crops de- 
stroyed, stock stolen and slaughtered, forests burned, 
plantations ruined, and homes violated. A hungry 
swarm of locusts, stripping the earth of every green 
thing, would furnish a fair type of the British army of 
occupation on Narragansett Bay. 

There were certain incidents of the war connected 
with the local history of Providence or Bristol, that I 
have mentioned in the chapters particularly devoted to 
those places. Others, which have more than local im- 
portance, we may discuss here. Prominent among the 



192 Narragansett Bay 

more dashing episodes of the war was the capture of 
General Prescott, the narration of which has probably 
made as deep an impression upon the popular imagina- 
tion as any of the minor events of American history. 

Colonel William Barton, who at the time was sta- 
tioned with the Continental soldiers at Tiverton, had, 
according to his portrait, a long head and a mouth which 
betokened a keen sense of humour. From his memora- 
ble adventure upon the night of the 9th of July, 1777, 
we may conclude that in those particulars the likeness is 
fairly accurate. 

Barton grot it into his lono- head that it would be a 
delicious pleasantry and not an impossible feat to run 
the gauntlet of all the British vessels in Narragansett 
Bay and the guards upon the island of Aquidneck, pen- 
etrate the enemy's lines to the very headquarters of the 
commanding officer and steal that important personage. 
It has been said that the American Colonel conceived 
the idea that General Prescott would make a good ex- 
change for Lee, who was then a prisoner in the hands of 
the British, but this seems very doubtful. Love of ad- 
venture and delight in a practical joke v/ould furnish 
sufficient incentive to a man of Barton's type, without 
borrowing a motive from our after-knowledge of results. 

The story of Barton's raid should have been put into 
heroic verse or have found a place in ballad literature 
long ago, for never a sortie or strategem that has en- 
riched the border legends of Scotland, nor any wild 
escapade of Saracen or Cid, can outmatch the steal- 




THE CAPTURE OF GENERAL PRESCOTT. BOATS PASSING NEAR BRITISH VESSELS 



193 



Rhode Island in the Revolution 195 

ing of General Prescott by a Yankee colonel from 
Tiverton. 

After having been detained for two days by storms at 
Warwick Neck, Colonel Barton started with five whale- 
boats and forty volunteers to cross Narragansett Bay, 
the lower part of which was held by the British. The 
enemy were in possession of Conanicut, Prudence, and 
Hope Islands, and had numerous guard boats patroling 
the waters between, besides several war vessels and mis- 
cellaneous shipping. 

By keeping a keen watch out, and possibly by previous 
information of the position of the various vessels and 
boats, the little fiotilla of Americans dodged between 
Patience and Prudence, and then, continuing down the 
west shore of the latter island, rounded its lower end, and 
reached the west shore of Rhode Island without mishap. 
About midway between Newport and the Bristol Ferry 
the invaders concealed their boats and made a landing. 
A neero who had been a servant in the household of the 
British General is said to have acted as guide ; it is cer- 
tain that some one well acquainted with the position of 
headquarters was with Barton's party, for they went at 
once to the farmhouse of Mr. Overing, where Prescott 
was living. 

They do not seem to have made any effort to avoid 
the sentinel, who challenged as a matter of course. In- 
stead of answerino- the challencre. Barton cried : " We 
are looking for deserters. Have you seen any ? " For 
a moment the soldier was thrown off his guard, and as 



196 Narragansett Bay 

the American impatiently repeated his question he al- 
lowed the leaders of the party to gather about him. In 
a moment he was overpowered and threatened with 
death if he cried out. 

When the coast was finally clear and guards disposed 
of, the negro led the way to General Prescott's room, 
and finding it locked proceeded to butt it open. 

Prescott was sitting up in bed when his captors en- 
tered. To Barton's questioning he acknowledged him- 
self to be the man they were seeking. Then the Colonel 
said : 

" You are my prisoner." 

To his plea to be allowed to dress, Prescott was told 
that there was no time to spare. He was permitted to 
wrap himself in his cloak and was conducted to the shore 
by the way the party had come. General Prescott's aid. 
Major Barrington, tried to escape from the house by a 
window, but fell into the hands of Barton's men. 

There had been no confusion, no hesitation. The 
plan worked without a hitch from beginning to end. 
Prescott was warned to keep silence when the boats in 
returning passed very close to some British vessels, and 
he obeyed. In just six and a half hours from the time 
they had started, the party landed upon the Point, with- 
out a single mishap. Then Prescott spoke. 

" Sir, " said he, " you have made a damned bold push 
to-night." 

On his way to the American headquarters, Prescott 
was given a chance to rest at an inn, where the inn- 



Rhode Island in the Revolution 197 

keeper brought him a bowl of some sort of broth. Dis-= 
gusted with such homely fare, the dainty gentleman 
threw the contents of the bowl in his host's face. With- 
out a word, the latter went out of the room and wiped 
his face, then picking up a horsewhip went back to 
where General Prescott was and gave him a richly de- 
served whipping. The exchange of Prescott for Lee, 
which was effected some time later, is familiar history 
and not pertinent to this narrative. 

Of the house in which the daring capture took place, 
it is said that little or nothing remains. A stream and 
pond mark the site, which is on the road that extends 
along the western side of the island, about midway be- 
tween Middletown and Portsmouth Grove. 

The greatest and most beneficial result of Barton's 
successful raid is one which is often lost sight of — that is, 
the moral effect upon the Continental army as well as 
upon the country at large. Wayne's attack upon Stony 
Point, though of no great military importance, since the 
Americans were not in a position to retain the ground 
that had been won so valorously, was well calculated to 
rouse the drooping spirits of the American patriots, but 
Wayne's exploit did not have a more beneficial effect 
in inspiring confidence than did the abduction of Pres- 
cott. The arrival of the French fleet under Count 
D'Estaing, in the summer of i 778, gave opportunity for 
the planning of a campaign that was expected to free 
Rhode Island from British domination. 

Regarding this project W^ashington entertained not 



198 Narragansett Bay 

only the highest hopes of its success, but also an exalted 
notion of the important effects that would ensue. 

Expectation was at its height. The newly an- 
nounced alliance of the French had raised hopes of a 
more vigorous prosecution of the war, and its speedy 
termination. With the tieet of D'Estaing actually in 
American waters, it seemed as though victory was about 
to alight upon the American standard, and even the 
Commander-in-Chief seems in a measure to have caught 
the popular enthusiasm. 

Having decided that an immediate attack upon New 
York was inexpedient, a joint attack upon Newport by 
the French and American forces was agreed upon. 
D'Estaino- and his fleet were to enofaee the British 
upon the water side, while a strong land force was at 
the same time to advance from the north. The move- 
ment, if successful, would result in forcing the surrender 
not only of the property, stores, and munitions of the 
British troops, but of the men themselves, since retreat 
was impossible for them. 

At that time General Sir Robert Pigott commanded 
about six thousand men on Rhode Island — that is, 
upon the island that gives the State its name. The 
General's headquarters were at Newport, wdiere most of 
his soldiers were in garrison. There were some bodies 
of men and a few defences upon the northern end of 
Aquidneck, but the principal disposition, both of men 
and implements of war, was south of a strongly en= 
trenched line running clear across the island, about 



Rhode Island in the Revolution 199 

three miles above Newport. A small fleet in adjacent 
harbours and anchorag^es supported the land force, 
and batteries were so placed as to guard all practicable 
landing-places. 

In pursuance of the plan of attack agreed upon, 
D'Estaing was to push into the bay, destroying the 
British vessels and eno-aorinor the shore batteries, and 
by a simultaneous advance a body of American troops, 
commanded by General Sullivan, would advance from 
the northern part of the island. 

The news of this projected concert of arms roused 
great enthusiasm throughout New England. Men of all 
ranks flocked to join the expedition. John Hancock 
himself led the Massachusetts Militia and Lafayette 
was one of many sanguine volunteers. 

On the 29th of July, the French fleet came to anchor 
about five miles from Newport not far from the shoal 
now marked by the Brenton's Reef light-ship. Between 
Beavertail and Newport, lay three frigates and one or 
two small vessels belonging to the British Navy, an- 
other warship occupied a position in the western channel, 
and two more guarded the entrance to the Saconnet 
channel, which was the direct line of communica- 
tion between the ocean and the American forces at 
Tiverton. 

Immediately upon hearing of the arrival of the fleet 
of D'Estaing, General Greene, who was at Providence, 
hastened to go on board the French flagship and ar- 
range the details of the attack. While the Frenchmen 



200 Narragansett Bay 

were forcing their way into the harbour, it was decided, 
the i\merican troops under Sulhvan were to cross the 
upper end of the Saconnet River, at Tiverton, and, 
landing on the north end of Rhode Island, to make a 
descent upon Pigott from that side. 

Two opposite influences contributed to interfere with 
the success of this scheme of battle: the first was un- 
necessary delay; the second, undue precipitation. The 
delay was caused by the expected arrival of reinforce- 
ments from Washington's army ; the fatal haste was 
chargeable to Sullivan's impetuosity. The latter had 
moved down to Howland's ferry with a force that must 
have numbered nearly ten thousand men. He halted 
there to wait the signal to advance, when the rapid 
retreat of the British soldiers who were posted upon 
the northern end of Rhode Island proved a temptation 
too strong to be resisted. Sullivan at once crossed 
the ferry to take possession of the abandoned works so 
lately occupied by the enemy. 

The sudden withdrawal of the British from the north 
had been caused by the advance of D'Estaing, who on 
the eighth of August passed the batteries and entered 
the main channel, not however without some sharp 
firing. Upon his approach the British vessels in the 
channel were run aground, burned, or otherwise de- 
stroyed, for fear that they might fall into his hands, and 
all outposts upon the land were called in. 

Yet when Count D'Estaing learned that General 
Sullivan had advanced without notifying or consulting 



M 



-^i 



.-■« 



Rhode Island in the Revolution 203 

him, his nice sense of propriety was shocked by such a 
breach of military etiquette, and he was strongly disin- 
clined to proceed with the attack. Whatever he might 
have done finally was interrupted by the appearance of 
Lord Howe's tleet off Point Judith. The wasted 
eleven days had given that nobleman an opportunity to 
gather reinforcements and sail to the support of his 
countrymen in the beleaguered town, and while his force 
was still inferior to that of D' Estaintr in the number 
and armament of his vessels, it was still — Eno-lish sea- 
men against French — too important an adversary to be 
slighted. 

The French fleet, leaving- Sullivan to arrange his af- 
fairs as best he might, put out after the English fleet 
and away they all went, a multitude of white sails set 
and glistening in the sun, while each side manoeuvred 
for the weather gage, without which neither cared to 
risk an attack. Away to the southward they went and 
out of sight, leaving Sullivan very much disgusted. 
D' Estainor had sent him a messacre that he would land 
a force of marines and troops to assist him "when he 
returned. " 

The American General, acting against the advice of 
Lafayette, decided not to wait for the promised aid, but 
to commence the siege as soon as possible. He had 
entrenched his position upon Quaker Hill, nearly ten 
miles north of Newport, and was contemplating an im- 
mediate advance, when a storm, long remembered for its 
violence, swept over the island and wrought the utmost 



204 Narragansett Bay 

havoc. Trees were uprooted, houses wrecked, tents 
and camp equipages whirled away Hl<;e toys. The men 
unhoused and drenched, with arms and provisions aHke 
damaged by the storm, were, by morning, dull and dis- 
pirited. It has been well said that if the British had 
sallied out that day from their comfortable quarters the 
loss to the Americans would have been terrible, but 
that is one of a long series of postulates that suggest 
the recasting of all history. If D' Estaing had not 
waited, if Sullivan had not advanced, if Howe had not 
arrived, if the storm had not blown — there might be 
little to write but a very tame victory. 

The storm that demolished Sullivan's camp did a 
devastating work with the opposing fleets and left them 
in no condition for combat. The great ships of the line 
and beautiful frigates that had been coquetting with 
each other for choice of position only a few hours 
before, were stripped, battered, dismasted, almost 
wrecked. Howe with his forlorn remnant crept back to 
New York, and D' Estaing to Newport. 

The position of affairs had changed somewhat since 
his departure. The impetuous Sullivan, with a tem- 
perament that did not discredit his name, had spurned 
all advice and advanced to within two miles of the 
British lines ; throwing up a line of breastworks he 
made careful preparations for a siege. But hardly had 
he taken this step when desertions, the bane of the 
Continental army, began to deplete his force. The 
place where Sullivan took his position is known as 



Rhode Island in the Revolution 205 

Honeyman's Hill, so named from a former prominent 
merchant of Newport. 

For several days the Americans lay here in idleness, 
awaiting- the reappearance of D'Estaing, a desultory 
firing from both sides alone breaking the monotony of 
delay. x'\t length the French fleet returned, but so bat- 
tered as to be of little service. The Count pleaded his 
instructions in order to explain his refusal to co-operate 
with Sullivan, and his determination to go at once to 
Boston for necessary repairs. He left the Americans 
with sore and angry hearts. Their commander issued 
an intemperate order, announcing his purpose to pro- 
ceed unaided, and reflecting obliquely upon the Count, 
but the objectionable portion of this utterance he after- 
wards sought to soften. 

With the departure of the French allies and all 
hopes of assistance froni that quarter, the desertions 
from the American ranks redoubled, till out of ten 
thousand men Sullivan had scarcely more than half that 
number remaining. It soon became apparent that the 
enterprise must be abandoned, and the question became 
one of retiring without sacrificing his men, artillery, and 
baggage. 

First the heavy artillery was despatched to the rear 
as rapidly and secretly as possible, and sent from the 
island ; then the camp was broken and a retreat was 
commenced upon the night of the twenty-eighth, just 
one month after the first appearance of the French fleet 
off Newport. The plan decided upon was to fall back 



2o6 Narragansett Bay 

upon the works at the north end of the island and fortify, 
there to await the return of D'Estaing from Boston. At 
daybreak the retreat was discovered by the enemy, but 
pursuit was checked by the covering parties under 
Colonels Livingston and Laurens. 

The Americans took position on Batt's Hill, the Brit- 
ish upon Quaker Hill, about a mile distant, and sharp 
cannonadino- with occasional skirmishine ensued • but 
before noon two British vessels appeared and stood up 
the Bay with the evident intention of turning Sullivan's 
tlank and capturing a redoubt which covered his right. 
General Greene defended this work successfully until 
night. Several hundred men on each side are said to 
have been killed in this day's engagement. The morn- 
ino- brouorht renewed cannonadino- and also the discon- 
certing news that Lord Howe was advancing with his 
renovated fleet to assist the Newport garrison. There 
was but one thing to do. The abandonment of Rhode 
Island became an imperative and immediate necessity. 
Under cover of a ruse, Sullivan commenced the with- 
drawal of his forces. Batt's Hill became the scene of 
somewhat ostentatious activity. Tents were erected in 
view of the foe, while men were employed in throwing 
up earth and strengthening the entrenchments. In the 
meantime baggage and stores were withdrawn and with 
nightfall the transportation of the troops commenced. 
Lafayette had left Sullivan on the day before the re- 
treat, and in seven hours had ridden seventy miles, to 
Boston, to confer with D'Estaing. Finding help from 



Rhode Island in the Revolution 207 

that quarter not to be hoped for, he returned on horse- 
back in time to assist in the removal of the troops from 
Rhode Island. "He arrived in time," says Irving, "to 
bring off the pickets and covering parties, amounting to 
a thousand men, which he did in such excellent order that 
not a man was left behind, nor the smallest article lost." 

So the great expedition ended — not a day too soon, 
for Sir Henry Clinton arrived in the bay with a force of 
British ships within twenty-four hours after the last man 
had crossed the ferry. In all of this business we cannot 
but admire the address and energy of General Sullivan, 
who, if he did not exhibit the highest generalship in 
crossing the ferry without waiting for his somewhat in- 
comprehensible French allies, yet showed rare address 
in every movement during his stay and particularly in 
his clever retirement. 

General Washington's regret was expressed in terms 
of more vehemence than he was accustomed to indulge 
in. His disappointment must have been keen when he 
wrote to his brother Augustine : 

An unfortunate storm and some measures taken in consequence 
of it by the French Admiral, blasted in one moment the fairest 
hopes that ever were conceived; and, from a moral certainty of 
success, rendered it a matter of rejoicing to get our own troops safe 
off the island. If the garrison of that place, consisting of nearly 
six thousand men, had been ca]Dtured, as there was, in appearance 
at least, a hundred to one in favor of it, it would have given the 
finishing blow to British i)retentions of sovereignty over this coun- 
try, and would, I am persuaded, have hastened the departure of the 
troops in New York, as fast as their canvas wings would carry them 
awav. 



2o8 Narragansett Bay 

Such was the end of a great enterprise, that came 
near being- a great fiasco. The effect upon the pubhc 
mind was depressing, and the arm\-, as usual, suffered in 
consequence. 

Upon a second or third edition of a British chart first 
pubHshed by request of Lord Howe in 1776, and several 
years later republished with notes and references, there 
is a summary of the movements of the French fleet be- 
fore Newport in 1778. 

Explaining tlie situation of the British ships and forces after 
the 29th of July, 1778, when the French fleet under the Count 
D'Estaing appeared and anchored off the Harbour at ^ [that is at 
a point marked upon the chart about 2-k miles due south of Prince's 
Neck and Coggeshall Island] the same day two French frigates 
went up the Seaconnet passage. 

July 30th. Two French line of battle ships, anchored in the 
Narragansett passage, on which the King's troops (quitted Conanicut 
Island. 

August 5th. The French ships came towards Dyer's Island 
when the British advanced frigates were destroyed and the seamen 
encamped. 

August 8th. The rest of the French fleet came into the har- 
bour and anchored abreast of Gold Island, u])on which the King's 
troops withdrew within the lines . . . (that is on the south side 
of Prudence Island). 

August 9th. The Enemy's forces landed. 

Where this landing took place we are not informed. 
From contemporary writers we have very good accounts 
of the doings of the French fleet at this time, and many 
were the criticisms directed against D'Estainof, because 
he did not land in force to co-operate with General 
Sullivan. Whether there was an error in the British 



Rhode Island in the Revolution 209 

Admiralty reports, in the memoranda from which the 
cartographer engraved his map, or in the accounts given 
by American historians, I leave the reader to judge. 

During the British occupation of Newport there 
occurred a battle concerning which military histories 
are usually silent, yet which resulted in dreadful mor- 
tality among the hireling soldiers of George III, 

On the memorable night of December 22d, 1778, 
the sentinels were stationed as usual, but with a caution 
to keep moving ; and the troops in barracks passed 
their time in such rough horse-play as soldiers are wont 
to indulge in, or gathered about the fires, grumbling; 
for the sun went down in a stormy sky and the cold 
increased. No sense of insecurity disturbed the gar- 
rison, for it was not such a night as an ordinary foe 
would choose for attack. 

No ordinary enemy was that one who stole noise- 
lessly upon the sentinels in the darkness, that inter- 
cepted those who ventured upon the streets, that even 
invaded barracks and slew the men as they slept in 
their bunks. An ally, as resistless as it was unlooked for, 
fought on the American side that night. Its legions 
were the innumerable hosts of the snow, its weapon a 
cold so intense that the ViQ-ht barrack walls could not 
exclude it. Death relieved the sentries at their posts, 
death overtook the belated soldiers upon the street, and 
death smote the sleepers in their quarters. The de- 
struction was like that of the Assyrian host when Sen- 
nacherib led them against Israel. 
14 



2IO Narragansett Bay 

There have been many storms that have howled over 
Aquidneck and many cold winters, but never such a 
storm nor such bitter cold has been recorded as when 
'the Hessians fell, on outpost, and in quarters, before a 
foe as silent, as invisible, as death. 

For a time military discipline and strength seemed 
paralysed : the vessels near the shore were driven in 
and damaged, or wrecked ; the coast was practically un- 
guarded for days. If the French fleet had then made 
a vigorous attack, Newport would have changed hands 
with scarcely a struggle. 

When the British forces finally evacuated Newport 
they were not driven out by force of arms, nor was the 
subsequent occupation of the town by the French the 
result of conquest. Regarding the sojourn there of 
the latter, there have been many favourable comments, 
nor have I ever seen a word of censure or disapproval 
of their conduct while in Rhode Island. Nothing could 
have served better to remove the popular prejudice 
against our French allies, than the opportunity that 
was presented of contrasting their conduct with that of 
the Hessian savages who had preceded them. 

Upon their retirement, the British left blackened 
ruins. Over five hundred houses were reduced to ashes ; 
barns, stores, and public works w^ere destroyed ; even 
the lighthouse upon Beavertail was wantonly wrecked 
at the time of their withdrawal. For three years they 
had been known as vandals and brawlers, and their rep- 
utation was not suffered to decline. Nearly one hun- 



Rhode Island in the Revolution 211 

dred and twenty-five thousand pounds was the estimated 
money loss through destruction of property accomplished 
by them in Newport. 

On the day of their departure, citizens were warned 
to keep to their houses under pain of death, and from 
their windows they watched helplessly while their 
goods, their cattle, and their slaves were taken away. 
Fifty-two transports carried the troops with their bag- 
gage and plunder, and the melancholy company of 
Tories who, having welcomed the English invaders, 
were now fain to depart with them. It was a sad, sor- 
did, despicable exodus, not even dignified by a touch 
of tragedy. 

When the fleet of Rochambeau stood into the har- 
bour and came to an anchor where for so long the ships 
of King George had distressed the sight, the Newporters 
were in no mood to make them welcome. Direful tales 
of French manners and morals had been spread broad- 
cast, the old anger at D'Estaing's desertion, as they 
chose to consider it, still burned and added to the gen- 
eral distrust, and, besides, had they not endured three 
years of barrack neighbourhood ? Certainly there had 
been enough of soldier life to satisfy Newport for a 
generation. 

Those soldier-ridden people could hardly believe 
their senses when the French garrison settled quietly 
into the places vacated by their foes, and made no dis- 
turbance, but treated the inhabitants witli deference, 
kept reasonably sober, and respected property rights. 



212 Narragansett Bay- 

It was written at that day and has been handed down 
for the astonishment of this, that even in one case 
where several apple trees, weighted with fruit, hung 
over a part of the French camp, the fruit was not 
touched by the soldiers. 

Nowhere do we read of brawls, of drunkenness, of in- 
sult, of theft ; but, on the contrary, the records are full 
of praise for the Frenchmen. It is not to be supposed 
that an army of Gallic angels had flown into Newport, 
or that all the Enoflishmen and Hessians who had eone 
out were devils. The answer to any riddle that may ap- 
pear to be involved is — discipline. The French soldiers 
were well officered and the British troops were not. 

Rochambeau went vigorously to work and in twelve 
days completed a system of defences which he con- 
sidered a sufficient safeg-uard ao^ainst attack. An en- 
trencheci camp partly enclosed the town and batteries 
bristled upon every point. 

The officers who served under this gallant and sol- 
dierly old commander soon won golden opinions from 
the people who had watched their coming with such 
dread. With unflagging spirits they made the poor, 
harassed little remnant of a town, still haunted by the 
recollection of its losses and suffering, a scene of almost 
perpetual festivity. They were a rare company, those 
noble young Frenchmen, the flower of the best society 
in the politest capital in the world. At home they had 
been accustomed to the magnificence of the Court and 
the splendour of the private life of the ancient nobility. 



Rhode Island in the Revolution 213 

They were familiar with the luxuries that wealth com- 
mands and all the deference paid to rank. There could 
hardly have been a greater contrast presented to the 
companions of Rochambeau than that which placed in 
opposition Paris and Newport. 

Not even in these later days can any social function 
in Newport display so brilliant an assembly of for- 
eiofners of distinoruished birth as that which eraced the 
receptions of impoverished merchants in their battered 
dwellings in the summer of 1780. 

That fine culture of tiie old nobility of France, about 
which so much has been said, went deeper than mere 
polish : it was in the grain, for it did not abate in 
the little parlours of a half-ruined American village the 
courtesy demanded in the grand salon of the Tuileries. 
Ah, what a gay delightful band of brave youth that 
was, and what a tragic cloud, unseen, hung over many 
of them ! In years to come not a few laid their heads 
un.der the hungry guillotine, or escaped only to wander, 
impoverished and sad, in exile. 

There were Chastellux, de Barras, Deuxponts, Lau- 
zan-Biron, de Soleux, Talleyrand, de Broglie, \'iomenil, 
La Touche, and many another — to repeat the list is to 
recite the honour roll of France as it was before the old 
order changed. One commanded a regiment under the 
Due d' Orleans in the Vendee and was guillotined, 
another served with distinction under Napoleon, a third 
— and to him we owe a deeper debt — wrote those 
recollections of Travels in America that have proved 



2 14 Narragansett Bay 

such a valuable side-light on our early national history. 
Hardly one but in some way distinguished himself in 
subsequent years, upon a broader stage. 

The Newport stage at that time certainly was not a 
broad one. Rochambeau was held in check by his in- 
structions and for some time remained inert at New- 
port, neither to his own satisfaction nor that of 
Washington. His headquarters were in a house after- 
ward known as "the old Vernon house" on the corner 
of Clarke and Mary streets. Here Washington visited 
him and won the admiration of the generous French- 
man by the grace of a character at once simple and 
majestic. In the Vernon house at a reception given in 
his honour, the future President and Father of his 
Country danced a minuet with "the beautiful Miss 
Champlain." It is said that the French officers took 
the instruments from the musicians and played for 
Washington to dance : this is upon the authority of an 
eye-witness. 

Those months of inaction were productive of letters 
and memoirs, some of which have been preserved, and 
give pleasant glimpses not only of the social life of the 
town, but of several of the belles to whom the French- 
men gave their admiration and compliments if not their 
hearts. Miss Redwood was of these, her name to-day 
one of the most familiar in Newport ; another was 
Polly Lawton, a Quaker maiden ; and doubtless then as 
now the American girl was a revelation to the young 
men from the other side of the water. 



Rhode Island in the Revolution 215 

Among the traditions that have survived a century 
and a half of changing populations and altered con- 
ditions of life, there is an old love-story, which began 
some years before the Revolution, though its climax 
came in that distressed time. 

Long ago, before the War for Independence, a young 
man named Bell came to Newport in one of the King's 
ships. He was connected with the revenue service, 
and officers in that branch were in particular disfavour 
with merchants who, however loudly they might shout 
"God save the King!" yet growled mightily if he in- 
terfered with their commerce. Their chronic animosity 
to all tax collectors and revenue men had been worked 
to a fever by the hated Sugar Act, and the means 
taken to enforce it. The Rhode Islander made his 
own laws and his own ships. He elected his own 
governor and paid his own expenses. He had long 
aijo boasted of livinof under a " democratical " ^overn- 
ment, and he was a free-trader. 

The S^. John, of evil repute, whose story I have 
given in another place, was in Narragansett Bay for the 
purpose of enforcing the obnoxious act, and Ensign 
Bell was included in her unpopularity. The merchants 
looked upon him and his associates in very much the 
same way that an Irish tenant regards a tithe proctor. 

Notwithstanding the fact that Bell was by virtue of 
his trade a most obnoxious person in the eyes of the 
merchants, he was nevertheless not at all disliked by 
the daughters of those stern fathers. Before long an 



2i6 Narragansett Bay 

attachment grew up between the revenue officer and a 
maiden whose father was one of the most bitter and 
obstinate of free-traders. It seems hardly necessary to 
record the fact that when the attachment was discovered 
by the girl's father he turned the suitor out of doors 
and read his daughter a lecture upon the perversity of 
her preference. But when did obstacles, banishment, or 
lectures afford more than a temporary check to the 
course of true love } The couple met at the houses of 
indulgent friends and their troth was plighted in the 
good old-fashioned, romantic way, when Bell was 
ordered back to England. 

Parting from the )'oung lady he vowed that he would 
come again and at last put upon her hand an opal ring 
that had belonged to his mother. With this betrothal 
he left her, with what sadness we can well imagine, and 
she took the ring from her finger and wore it secretly 
upon her bosom. 

The years slipped away and the great struggle that 
was to separate the American Colonies from the Mother 
Country commenced. It seemed as if evnl fortune had 
now raised an insurmountable barrier between lover 
and lady-love, but he fought for his King and dreamed 
of promotion that would make winning her possible 
when the war was over ; and she felt the ring move 
with her heart-beats, and waited, and hoped. 

Such a story, had it been fiction, must have had a 
happy ending : but it was not to be so. In an engage- 
ment off Hatteras, Bell was killed, and in some way the 



Rhode Island in the Re^^olution 217 



news came to Newport. Then Mary, his betrothed, 
placed his ring openly upon her finger, no longer afraid 
of her father's wrath ; but with her hope her life ebbed 
away, so that in a few months she lay upon her death- 
bed. 

To a dear friend she entrusted the ring, to be given 
to that friend's oldest girl child, with her own name, 
Mary. But no good fortune ever accompanied that 
gift. It was traced through several hands and in each 
case disaster and death accompanied it, till at last it w^as 
lost sight of. One wonders whether the opal is still 
worn upon some fair hand and whether it still is, to 
use the quaint, expressive old phrase, " haunted with a 
sorrow." 



Chapter IX 
The Narragansett Country 

THE elder Winthrop thus described the Narragan- 
sett country in 1634: "The country on the 
west of the bay of Narragansett is all champain 
for many miles, but very stony and full of Indians." 
For " champain " we may read. " a flat, open country, fit 
for farming," and the description is good to-day, except 
for the absence of the red savages. The ancient lands 
of those aboriginal Americans, who gave their name to 
the country, extended from Greenwich Bay to Point 
Judith, and from Narragansett Bay westward to the 
country of the fierce Pequots. At a later day the term 
Narragansett Country designated little besides South 
Kingstown. 

All the fierce boundary disputes between Rhode 
Island and Connecticut, quarrels that occupied the 
English courts for many years, hinged upon the mean- 
ing of a single name. The Rhode Island men held 
that when the Narragansett River was mentioned in 
their charter, the stream referred to was the Pawcatuck, 
that had its rise in Wardon's Pond, near the g-reat 

swamp ; but the Connecticut party contended that the 

218 



The Narragansett Country 221 

western arm of the great bay itself was the intended 
boundary. As the Connecticut claim, would have 
wiped nearly the whole of Rhode Island from the map, 
the dispute was naturally an exceedingly warm one. 

The most interested and most vehement parties to 
the discussion were two great land companies, the first 
headed by John Hull, the Boston goldsmith and mint- 
master, and the other by Humphrey Atherton. The 
real peopling of the country began in 1657 with what 
was known as the Pettaquamscutt purchase, made by 
John Hull and his companions. All of these, except 
the leader, are said to have been actual settlers. The 
other party, formed two years later, anticipated some of 
the great land speculators of after-days and was not in 
any way beneficial to the infant Colony. 

Miss Caroline Hazard, in her valuable study of early 
Narragansett life, says that " the Atherton company 
seems to have been a speculation of absentee land- 
lords." Dr. Edward Channing calls the members of 
that company " anti-Rhode Islanders in spirit." One 
of their leaders was the younger Winthrop, afterwards 
of Connecticut, and his influence, both at home and in 
England, was strenuously directed towards robbing the 
settlers of Rhode Island of their charter rights. 

The price paid by Hull and his companions for the 
Pettaquamscutt purchase, which included all, or nearly 
all. of the present Washington County, was sixteen 
pounds in money, and other considerations. The Ath- 
erton claim overlay the earlier one, covering the lands 



222 Narragansett Bay 

already purchased. The titles that this company se- 
cured were in some cases acquired by a unique method. 
For certain depredations committed, or charged to have 
been committed, by Indians, Massachusetts claimed an 
indemnity. Atherton, Winthrop, and others, by tak- 
ing a hand in this business, obtained as security for 
the payment of the indemnity, mortgages upon Indian 
lands. Whether or not the Indians understood the 
nature of a mortgage is doubtful, they certainly made 
no move towards redeeming their land and the inevi- 
table foreclosure put the shrewd Massachusetts men in 
possession, if not of the land, at least of a claim upon 
which they might stand while making war upon the Pct- 
taquamscutt purchasers. The clearest thing about the 
whole series of transactions seems to be that the red 
men were generally in the dark about the meaning of 
the various deeds to which they affixed their marks. 

It was, as I have said, between these two claimants 
that the boundary war seems to have been principally 
carried on. A grant made by the English Crown to the 
Earl of Warwick in 1631, and confirmed in 1662, made 
the latter a claimant to Rhode Island territory. The 
name of Warwick still marks a prominent point upon 
the upper western shore of Narragansett Bay. 

The conflicting purchase claims were finally settled in 
1679, ^^d sometime later the King's Commissioners cut 
the knot in the boundary question by erecting in the 
Narragansett country a separate government, known 
as the King's Province. Kingstown, by the way, was 



The Narragansett Country 223 

incorporated in 1674 for the avowed purpose of ob- 
structing Connecticut in her movements. The dispute 
was not settled by one decision, but was reopened and 
rearcrued before new ministers and new commissioners, 
till finally the Connecticut party was forced to accept 
defeat. 

Between Saunderstown and Hammond Hill, in 
Washington County, or, to be more definite, in Kings- 
town, there runs a delectable little stream with the mu- 
sical name of Pettaquamscutt. It fiows southward 
three or four miles and then merges into an inlet or tide- 
water creek that is shaped like a broad and rather fiat 
Y, the base of which opens upon the bay nearly oppo- 
site Beavertail Light. Between the mouth of the inlet 
and the more rocky neighbourhood of the Pier, nearly 
two miles to the southward, there is a long stretch of 
sand, famous as Narragansett Beach. Parallel with the 
beach and with the southern arm of Pettaquamscutt 
Inlet, there is a low ridge of land that was known for 
many years as Mumford's, till it became the home of 
Governor William Sprague and his accomplished wife, 
well known in Washington society in her maiden days 
as Miss Kate Chase. 

To the west of Pettaquamscutt Inlet is a long ridge, 
steep and high for that part of the country, that ter- 
minates in one of the most attractive sites upon the 
bay. From Tower Hill the view is only second to that 
from Mount Hope, which is plainly distinguishable to 
the north-east. Eastward the eye ranges across the 



224 Narragansett Bay 

end of Conanicut to Newport, or past the lighthouse 
on Beavertail, to the rim of the ocean ; beyond which 
no land interposes nearer than the coast of Spain. 
Southward over the clustering houses of Wakefield 
and the glistening waters of Point Judith Pond, there 
sleeps in calm, or rolls and lashes in storm, the ten mile 
belt of ocean that separates Block Island from the 
mainland, and then the gleam of sunlight upon innum- 
erable sails and on the walls of houses that stand like 
separate stones in a fine mosaic, small but sharply dis- 
tinct, along the shore of that paradise of all good 
fishermen. 

The conglomerate roofs of that city of nomads, 
Narragansett Pier, lie almost at our feet, but beyond 
the outskirts of crowding hostelries and pretentious 
" cottaofes " there is a scattered frincre of older houses, 
a few quaint reminders of that earlier day when the 
aristocratic families of the Narragansett country kept 
alive the old traditions of luxury without ostentation 
and hospitality without stint. 

Tower Hill has its own portion of colonial history, not 
by any means to be neglected nor forgotten. In 1672 
the General Assembly, sitting at Newport, appointed 
four commissioners " to go over to Narragansett and 
take view of such places there and thereabout that 
are fit for plantations." The Colony announced an 
intention to induce the peopling of such lands. This 
must not be understood as conflicting with the pur- 
chase of tracts by the great proprietors, but rather 



The Narragansett Country 225 

in the hght of an effort to induce tenants to settle 
upon them. About this time, in order to further the 
purposes described, and probably urged by the Nar- 
ragansett landowners, the Court of General Assembly 
went to Narragansett and met at the house of Mr. 
Jireh Bull, upon Tower Hill. Here again a year later, 
the Governor came with the great Quaker preacher 
and leader, George Fox, who spoke to a congre- 
gation gathered from all the frontier, even as far as 
Connecticut. This gathering reminds one of those 
that at a later day marked the rise of Methodism in 
the South. No doubt many of the people from be- 
yond the Pawcatuck, followed the old Pequot trail that 
ran to the north of Ouonochontaug, through Charles- 
ton and Kingston, and then northerly towards Wick- 
ford and East Greenwich. The highway afterwards 
followed the course of this Indian road. Speaking of 
the meeting at Jireh Bull's house, Fox afterwards wrote : 
" Most of the people were such as had never heard of 
Friends before, but they were mightily affected and a 
great desire is there after the truth among them." For 
a while a congregation of Friends met at Tower Hill, 
at the same house, sometimes under the ministration of 
John Burnyate or of John Cartwright. During King 
Philip's war, on a December night in 1675, the savages 
attacked the house and burned it, having slain all of its 
occupants. It was the news of this outrage that broke 
the power of the Narragansett Indians, for it brought on 
the great swamp fight with its brutal retaliation. For 



2 26 Narragansett Bay 

many years a court house stood upon Tower Hill, and 
after the destruction of Jireh Bull's house, the Friends 
built a meeting-house upon the hillside near by. 

That geographical area and historical importance 
have no necessary connection, has been proved so often 
that even Texans acknowledge the truth ; yet it would 
seem as though Pettaquamscutt had double its share of 
celebrity. It is not that Narragansett Pier is in the 
immediate vicinity, nor that billionaires have angled in 
its waters, nor even that "Shepherd Tom" Hazard 
with all his innumerable kinsmen, since the settlement 
of Boston Neck, have not only held actual title deeds 
to many acres, but also a "rambler's lease" that has 
covered the whole country side. This is where Gilbert 
Stuart was born ; where Oliver Hazard Perry and his 
hardly less famous brother learned the secrets of that 
sail-craft without which no Narragansett boy has ever 
gone out into the world ; where the Minturns lived, and 
where Whalley, the regicide — but this claim we must 
examine later. 

Gilbert Stuart, when in England, was once asked 
where he was born. He answered with no less humour 
than loyalty, "In Narragansett, six miles from Potta- 
woone and ten miles from Papasquash and about four 
miles from Conanicut and not far from the spot where the 
famous battle with the Pequots was fought." We may 
fairly doubt if the questioner, being better acquainted 
with the geography of the Thames than the Pettaquam- 
scutt, was any the wiser for the painter's explanation. 



The Narragansett Country 227 

Stuart, perhaps the most widely known of American 
portraitists, saw the hght in Narragansett in 1756. 
The neighbourhood in which his boyhood was passed 
was sparsely settled, and the country was generally 
divided among wealthy and aristocratic proprietors. 
The Narragansett region was famous for its plantations 
and its products, but not celebrated for its culture in 
art. No one can predict where the lightning of genius 
will strike, or knows what vagrant influence first found 
young Stuart and inoculated him with a desire to paint. 
His first professional performances, we are told, were ex- 
ecuted in Newport, where he found some sitters, but 
when opportunity offered he made his appearance in 
England, where he studied seriously and attained a 
good rank among the foremost artists of his day. 
When he returned to America, he lived again for a 
time, with his accomplished daughter, near the scenes 
among which his boyhood had been passed. 

Somehow Gilbert Stuart, in spite of his birth and 
residence in the Narragansett country, seems an alien. 
Perhaps it was his long residence abroad, but possibly 
even more than that, the remoteness of his spirit and 
aim from all the interests of those about him, that 
makes him appear as a stranger in the land of his birth. 
The Perrys, on the contrary, are as much a part of that 
country as the rocks and the sand of its shore. They 
were typical, normal, Narragansett Bay boys, born with 
a tiller in one hand and a main-sheet in the other, 
learning the vocabulary of the sea along with their 



2 28 Narragansett Bay 

nursery tales, and knowing the feel of the wind by in- 
stinct, as the ycung hawks do. 

Captain Christopher Raymond Perry, the father of 
the two future Commodores, took to the water at an 
early age, as ducks and Rhode Islanders are commonly 
supposed to do, and saw blue water first as cabin boy 
of a privateer. He served at different times in private 
armed vessels, merchantmen and war vessels, and at last 
obtained command, in 1798, of the United States frigate 
General Greene. It was as a midshipmite in this 
vessel, under his father's eye, that Oliver Hazard Perry 
commenced the career in which he was destined to win, 
at the early age of twenty-seven, a place in the first 
rank of American heroes. 

Passing over the early years of experience and ad- 
venture, the service in West Indian waters, the exciting 
cruise to the Mediterranean, with the lesson adminis- 
tered to Tripoli and her corsairs, and all the other pre- 
paratory work which went to the shaping of a great 
commander, we hasten to the time when he won the 
recognition of Congress for his seamanship and courage 
in assisting the ship Diana, off the coast of Georgia. 
He then commanded one of the best of the small 
vessels in our little navy, TJie Revcng'c, and was prob- 
ably as proud as a young officer is apt to be with his 
foot on his own quarter-deck. Perry did not, however, 
long enjoy the command of his little vessel. He was 
at home in the winter of 181 1 and in January sailed 
from Newport, intending to go to New London ; but 



The Narragansett Country 229 

by the time he was off Point Judith everything was 
covered with an impenetrable fog through which it was 
impossible to see from one side of the vessel to the 
other. " The thickest fog I shall ever see," Perry 
wrote afterwards to a friend. Through this dense at- 
mosphere the Revenge crept, under the guidance of a 
pilot who claiiued to know his business, till suddenly 
some one called " breakers," and the pilot broke down 
and confessed that he was utterly lost. Before there 
was time to take any action beyond an attempt to 
anchor, the unfortunate vessel was fiunof and offound 
upon the rocks, where she soon began to break up. So 
wise and energetic did the young commander prove 
himself, that before the hull had fallen to pieces every 
bit of armament, furnishinof, and riofaina- together with 
personal effects of those aboard her, had been rowed 
ashore in the boats. The spot where the Revenge was 
lost was near Watch Hill, at the mouth of the Paw- 
catuck River. Perry demanded a court-martial and 
the court not only exonerated but praised him for his 
judgment. 

That same year Perry married Miss Mason of New- 
port, but after a little more than a year of wedded life 
he was made Master Commandant in the Navy, and, 
his application for active service being accepted, he set 
out for that scene of action that was soon to become 
for him the theatre of his imperishable renown. 

Every schoolboy knows the story of that fight, where 
the young man of twenty-seven, in a disabled ship, 



230 Narragansett Bay 

fouo-ht sinele-handed ao^ainst the British fleet, com- 
manded by one of Nelson's captain's ; how the calm kept 
the American vessels from advancing to the aid of their 
flao--ship till her hull was riddled, her spars a tangled 
wreck, her scuppers running blood and but five men 
aboard able to hand a rope or pull a lanyard ; how, 
when at last the foremost of his own fleet had drifted 
near. Perry crossed to her in an open boat under the 
fiercest fire, and raising his signal upon her fought the 
battle out and won. It is a wonderful story, that never 
grows stale by repeated telling, and never has been 
eclipsed by the achievements of later wars and modern 
commanders. 

A boy who stood by Oliver Perry's side through all 
that bloody day, was his younger brother Matthew Cal- 
braith, who in the fulness of time won from Japan that 
memorable treaty that opened the Kingdom of the 
Mikado to the influences of Western civilisation and 
prepared her to take her place in time among the world 
powers. 

Such men as these that I have named Kingstown has 
produced, and others who have upheld the credit of their 
native shore in the Army and Navy of their nation and 
in the counsels of her lawmakers. 

According to an oft-repeated local legend, when the 
Pettaquamscutt was almost unknown except to the deer 
and the wild-fowl, or the red men that sought them 
there, a hunted refugee with a price on his head found 
a hiding-place in that secluded spot. He was unlike 



iv. 




The Narragansett Country 233 

the ordinary pioneer, the hardy and adventurous fron- 
tiersman, who, in romance at least, chafes under the 
approach of civihsation and thinks his neighbourhood 
crowded if someone settles within fifty miles of him. 
The legendary hermit of the Pettaquamscutt was an 
Englishman of elevated social rank, a kinsman of Crom- 
well, a soldier and legislator. 

Once, when fortune had seemed most fair to Edward 
Whalley, she had exalted him to his ruin, for he had sat 
in judgment upon a King, and when the son of Charles 
Stuart returned to England's throne, all the world 
knew that the regicide judges were marked for 
venofeance. 

upon the restoration of Charles II, in 1660, some of 
the judges were seized and executed, but three of them, 
Whalley, his son-in-law Goffe, and Colonel John Dix- 
well, escaped to America. The two first mentioned 
stayed for a while in Boston, but when it was under- 
stood there that they had not been included in the de- 
cree of pardon, they were obliged to fly. They went, 
according to one story, first to New Haven, where they 
lived for three years in a cave, but were at last dis- 
covered by some Indians and again driven to seek a 
new hiding-place. There is a cherished belief in Had- 
ley, that they were received by the Rev. Mr. Russell of 
that place, and by him concealed in an apartment in his 
house, from which they could escape to the cellar by a 
secret way. In that refuge, the antiquaries of Hadley 
affirm that these fugitives stayed sixteen years, at the 



2 34 Narragansett Bay 

end of which time, Whalley, a broken old man, his wits 
ahnost o-one, sickened and died. Letters written from 
Goffe to his wife, who was Whalley's daughter, are 
quoted in support of this story. Some years ago, it is 
said that a vault was discovered close to the cellar wall 
of Mr. Russell's house and in it bones that were be- 
lieved to be those of the unfortunate regicide. 

After Whalley's death, Goffe is supposed to have left 
that Hadley refuge to go south, but what befell him no 
one has ever learned. While the pair were in hiding 
at Mr. Russell's, Colonel Dixwell visited them — he was 
another of those, upon whose heads Charles had put a 
price — but he went away and appeared subsequently in 
New Haven, where, under an assumed name, he mar- 
ried and lived without molestation. 

One tradition is grood until another is told, and some- 
times afterwards. The legend that has established 
Edward Whalley by the bank of the Pettaquamscutt is 
as persistent as that which makes him an inmate of 
Mr. Russell's house at Hadley. The two are not neces- 
sarily irreconcilable, as even Goffe's letter, announcing 
his death, may have been a blind to cover his retreat to 
another hiding-place, and to the unbiassed mind the 
discovery of a grave near Mr. Russell's house proves 
absolutely nothing. 

In the early days of the Narragansett Colony, there 
was one John Whalley, a notary or justice, as there 
was also a man who called himself William Jefferay, to 
whom, for many years, the popular gossip of Newport 



The Narragansett Country 235 

and Narragansett assigned the perilous character of 
regicide. It is not impossible that from some such 
composite source, the legend of Edward Whalley's pre- 
sence near Pettaquamscutt may have grown. It seems 
certain that the Narrao^ansett claimant lived to an aire 
even exceeding four score, and married in that country, 
leaving children who have passed on to their descend- 
ants, as a family heirloom, the faith in their father's 
grim celebrity. 

The neitjhbourhood we are considerinof has also been 
famous for its population of unique ghosts. There is 
one grewsome old story connected with Pettaquam- 
scutt Cove, at a point where long ago lived a woman 
known as Miss Mumford. She possessed a sharp 
tongue and used it with such effect, that people in the 
vicinity were a little careful about provoking its at- 
tacks. One day a saucy negro boy displeased the good 
lady and was so vigorously berated that he went away 
with reveneeful thouehts towards her. Watchincr his 
chance upon the following day, while the object of his 
hatred was knitting by her front door, he stole upon 
her with a club and killed her. To conceal his crime, 
the murderer took the body of his victim to the Cove, 
and, having weighted it with stones, sank it and went 
away quite satisfied that he had effectually prevented 
detection. It chanced however that when Black Jim's 
club struck down Miss Mumford, her knitting fell to 
the ground, and it also happened that the ball of yarn 
which supplied her needles was all the while reposing 



236 Narragansett Bay 

in her pocket. By and by, when she was missed, the 
unfinished knitting was found by the chair where 
she had sat and the clue of yarn led unbroken to the 
ball which was still in Miss Mumford's pocket at the 
bottom of the Cove. Whether the negro, Jim, con- 
fessed, or was convicted on circumstantial evidence I 
cannot say, but this, as a recorder of legends as well as 
sober historical facts, I may state upon hearsay evi- 
dence, — the ghost of old Miss Mumford, with an un- 
finished piece of knitting in her hands, and her lips 
moving in inaudible animadversions, still wanders by 
the border of Pettaquamscutt Cove. 

Not only does Miss Mumford's ghost enliven the 
night-watches about Pettaquamscutt. There is a little 
valley called Dorothy's Hollow, a short distance from 
the Cove, and there, it is said, that an Indian squaw, 
named Dorothy by her English acquaintances, was lost 
in the great snow-storm of 1780. Her spirit also is 
restless. A short distance beyond Dorothy's Hollow, 
the Crying Bog used to be avoided by every man, 
woman, and child for miles around, because of the wail- 
ing, ghostly voices that haunted it. It had its story of 
tragedy, this place of lamentations : long years ago 
an Indian woman, who lived near the boe, was driven 
to madness by some wrong or cruelty. Some say that 
a faithless white lover was the cause of her affliction ; 
others, that the brutality of her Indian husband drove 
her out of her wits. Whatever the cause, the poor 
demented creature took her two children to the bosf 



The Narragansett Country 237 

and buried them in its quaking- bosom ; tlien, night 
after night, as long as she Hved, she stood wringing her 
hands and mourning over their grave. As long as she 
lived — and for long years afterwards — her pitiful cries 
rose through the chill, misty, night air that lay upon the 
marsh. There are a few superstitious people, whose 
opinions do not carry any great weight, who cling to 
the idea that that poor ghost is not yet laid. 

Once, all of the Narragansett shore was full of occult 
influences and presences, many of them derived, no 
doubt, from the aboriginal inhabitants. There were fair- 
ies on the hills, and ghosts in the by-ways, and witches as 
wise as any that ever rode a broom-stick in Salem or 
New Haven. There was old Sylvia Torry, who, we 
are informed, was a noted ne^ress witch, who told for- 
tunes in the region round about South Kingstown. 
Many of the stories told about her are full as marvel- 
lous as those generally told about wise women, from the 
days of the Hag of Endor to Mother Shipton. On one 
occasion, when a young man came to her to have his 
fortune told, she refused to make a prediction, and her 
silence assumed an ominous import when the young 
man died a few days afterwards. 

Thomas R. Hazard (Shepherd Tom) says : " The 
prophetess Jemima Wilkinson, ' Universal b^ricnd,' and 
founder of a sect known as ' United Friends,' lived at 
Judge William Potter's big house, called the ' Old 
Abbey,' that stood since my remembrance on the cast 
side of the road leading north from Little Rest Hill 



238 Narragansett Bay 

(now Kingston). This prophetess wrote a book of 
some ninety odd pages before she removed to East 
Greenwich, and afterwards to parts unknown." 

The author just quoted has given in his chatty and 
dehghtfully humorous Johnny Cake Papers, a descrip- 
tion of one of the haunts of the ubiquitous Captain 
Kidd. 

As every informed man and woman knows, the old Thomas B. 
Hazard big house that lately stood on the east side of the old mill 
pond (now the Wakefield mill pond) was in the olden time a great 
resort for tlie pirates that used to infest the American and West 
Indian seas, among whom was Captain Kidd. ... I remem- 
ber seeing a great hole in the Wilson woods, where, it was said 
guided by a dream, old Jim Wilson got a heap of gold, and so on 
the next day old Richard Cory instead of going to work to my 
grandfather's, posted himself to old Paris Gardner's, and told him 
that he too had a dream and had dug down in a place till he 
reached the nigger's bones that old Capt. Kidd had buried with a 
keg of gold, and being afraid to touch said bones he had come to 
get old Paris to go with him to Wilson's woods and get the gold, 
promising to give him half of the kegful if he would just go down 
with him that night and take the nigger's bones from off the top 
of it. 

The end of this adventure, in which dreams and dig- 
ging are so curiously mixed, Shepherd Tom omitted to 
relate, being himself somewhat of a practical joker. 

As every one knows — every one, that is, who is fa- 
miliar with the constitution of Rhode Island^ — the 
official title of the commonwealth has always been, 
" The State of Rhode Island and the Providence Plan- 
tations." Originally the Colony consisted of the four 
towns. Providence, Portsmouth, Newport and Warwick, 



The Narragansett Country 241 

which were settled in the order in which they are 
named, in 1636, 1638, 1639, and 1642, respectively. 
Until 1647, each town was governed independently. 
The situation of each is plainly designated upon the 
map to-day, but where, asks the enquirer after truth, 
are the Providence Plantations ? Except for that pre- 
amble to the constitution and certain legal forms, they 
have no existence. Of their rival plantations, those of 
the Narragansett country, there is still a remnant and 
a reminder. They were unequalled in Rhode Island in 
their day, both for their extent and for the unique so- 
ciety that developed upon them. Dividing that fertile 
territory that lies to the west of Narragansett Bay, in what 
was King's and is now Washington County, they were 
principalities, the extent of which was measured, not by 
acres, but by miles. The estate of Richard Smith com- 
prised about twenty-seven square miles, Robert Haz- 
ard, one of the great proprietors, had under cultivation 
a tract containing twelve thousand acres, while not a 
few of his neighbours were the proprietors of equally 
large holdings. Let it not be supposed that these 
great planters were simply the nominal lords of a wil- 
derness, over the forests and streams of which they 
might hunt or fish after the modern method. The 
plantations were under cultivation, their products as fa- 
mous throughout the country for excellence as the 
houses of their lords were for luxury. 

The labour upon the great Narragansett estates was 
performed for the most part by Indians and negro 



242 Narragansett Bay 

slaves. I have elsewhere spoken particularly of the 
slave trade, that was one of the lucrative industries of 
Rhode Island. Slave labour was as much a part of 
Rhode Island life as it was of Virginia life at that day, 
and the effort that has sometimes been made to crloss it 
over or make little of it, is unworthy of any careful 
historian. 

Slavery in Rhode Island was in many respects a 
more "peculiar institution" than elsewhere in the 
American Colonies. The slaves were allowed certain 
privileges tliat in time led to curious embarrassments. 
There was one day of the year that was set apart for 
what was commonly known as " nigger election " and 
upon that day the black people enjoyed a liberty that I 
believe was without parallel in any part of the world. 
From far and near the slaves gathered at Kingston, 
or some other central place, to elect a Governor — a 
negro Governor — for themselves, and this personage, 
while he had no actual authority nor legal status, yet 
enjoyed an almost unbounded influence over the people 
of his own colour, and was the referee in most of their 
private differences. At the election the negroes as- 
sumed for the time the importance of their masters and 
supported the dignity of their exalted " families" in very 
much the same way that the great planters themselves 
would have done. John, or Peter, or Sambo, was arrayed 
in fine clothing, furnished by his owner, he was permitted 
to ride his master's horse and provided with money to 
fling about as befitted a gentleman of property and 



The Narragansett Country 243 

rank. The election feast became in time a very sump- 
tuous and exceedingly expensive function, the races and 
games that followed rivalled those of the white people, 
ostentation was the order of the day — and the masters 
of those who revelled footed the bills. In time this 
absurd festival, the extravagance of which was some- 
how supposed to reflect credit upon the planters, be- 
came a real burden to many a slave-owner. The wealth 
of the planters was mainly in lands and personal property 
and though they had more cash than most Americans 
of their day, yet the longest purse was not by any 
means limitless. It is told that one great landowner, 
whose personal campaign expenses had been somewhat 
huge, had a slave who had stood as a gubernatorial 
candidate at the nigger election. The white man called 
the black one into his office and said, thoughtfully : 
"John, these elections are costing me too much. 
One or the other of us will have to give up politics." 

In 1730 South Kingstown contained 965 whites, 2,33 
negroes, and 193 Indians. A few years later, though 
the population had increased, the proportion remained 
nearly the same. A good evidence of the presence of 
numerous slaves is found in the stringent slav^e laws 
that were enacted, though many of these in time be- 
came practically a dead letter. " No negroes or Indians, 
freemen or slaves," we read, " are to be abroad at night 
on penalty of not exceeding fifteen stripes." No house- 
keeper might entertain a negro slave without con- 
sent of the owner first received. No housekeeper 



244 Narragansett Bay 

might suffer any servant or slave to have any kind of 
dancing, gaming, or diversion of any kind, under pen- 
alty of iifty pounds or one month's imprisonment. If 
the host in such a case were a free negro, he or she 
should no longer be permitted to keep house, but should 
be dispossessed " and shall be put into some private 
family to do work for his living for the space of one 
year, the wages accruing by said service to be for the 
benefit of the town." 

There were by-laws enacted in Kingstown that pro- 
vided among other things for the whipping of both 
slave and free negroes, if one of the latter class was 
found to have entertained one of the former. No 
goods could be sold to a slave without his master's per- 
mission and on no condition could liquor, even cider, be 
sold to a bond servant. No negro, whether slave or 
free, was permitted in the middle of the Eighteenth 
century to own any live stock of any description, under 
penalty of thirty-one lashes. 

The first movement towards freeing the slaves in 
Rhode Island, seems to have been made by Thomas 
Hazard, better known as " College Tom." Influenced 
somewhat by Berkeley, and partly by the sneer of a 
Connecticut antagonist, who told him flatly that the 
Quakers were not Christians because they kept slaves, 
this one of the great landowners declared in early life 
against the practice of owning human property and be- 
came one of the very first American abolitionists. His 
father, Robert, whose wealth was partly in slaves, and 



The Narragansett Country 245 

whose farms were made profitable by slave labor, en- 
deavoured to turn his son from such pestilent notions, 
and finallv threatened to disinherit him, but the vouncr 
man kept to his creed and began to cultivate his acres 
with free labour. 

The freeing of slaves b)' individual owners seems to 
have caused not a little trouble to the community, and 
in 1729 it was enacted by the Assembly that a " sufficent 
security be given to the town treasurer, of the town or 
place where such a person dwells (that is one who man- 
umitted a mulatto or negro slave) in a valuable sum of 
not less than ^100, to secure and indemnify the town 
from all charge." From this extract it appears that 
there were crafty people who sometimes freed a slave 
when his services no longer balanced the expense of his 
maintenance and left the communit)- to shoulder the 
burden. 

There were white bond servants who were not com- 
monly called slaves, though to all intents they were so. 
These were indentured for a term of years and could be 
transferred, but their offspring were free. 

Among the Friends, who set their faces against much 
•of the frivolity that distinguished their neighbours, and 
who discountenanced "vain music and dancing" at 
weddings, there grew in time a firm ojjposition to 
slavery. The great fight made by the Proxidence 
Society against the slave trade was largely urged by 
•Quakers. 

It is curious to note the hard loL-'ic with which for 



246 Narragansett Bay 

many years the Narragansett slave-holders treated their 
human property. As they were bought and worked as 
cattle, therefore they must be treated as cattle in re- 
spect to their souls. It would clearly be impious to 
permit the baptism of a slave as it would be to have 
the same solemn religious ceremony performed for an 
ox or a horse. Doctor McSparran and Dean Berkeley 
took the matter in hand and convinced the pious 
masters that there was a flaw in their logic, and com- 
forted the souls of many black servants by administer- 
ing the sacred rite. 

One of the great characters in the earlier colonial 
days in Rhode Island, was the lively and popular Irish 
divine, Doctor McSparran, who was sent to these wild 
shores by the Society for the Propagation of the Gos- 
pel in Foreign Parts. When he arrived he complained 
of the various non-conforming sects " Quakers, Ana- 
baptists of four sorts. Independents" and declared that 
" Here liberty of conscience is carried to an irreligious 
extreme." Then too the great Berkeley visited this 
country and stayed two years at Newport, leaving a 
strong impression upon the intellectual life of the 
colony. To both Berkeley and McSparran we are in- 
debted for much light upon the life of the Rhode 
Islanders of that day. 

Doctor Channing, in his paper on the Narragansett 
Planters, calls attention to the fact that the great land- 
owners of that country were not planters in the sense 
that the great landed proprietors of the South were. 



The Narragansett Country 247 

" The Narragansett wealth was derived not so much 
from the cultivation of any great staple such as tobacco, 
cane, or cotton, as from the product of their dairies, 
their flocks of sheep, and their droves of splendid horses, 
the once famous Narragansett pacers." 

The fame of the Narragansett pacers was not con- 
fined to the American Colonies. From the West 
Indies there were standing orders for all the animals of 
this strain that could be procured, and not a few were 
taken to the old country. So great was the speed of 
the Narragansett pacer that he could out-travel all other 
horses, his gait was so perfect that when at highest 
speed he could carry a pail of water on his back with- 
out spilling a drop, and his endurance was so great that 
he could travel a hundred miles without rest and with- 
out fatigue to himself or his rider : these are some of 
the marvels recorded of this most astonishing horse. 
It is said that the Revolutionary War so broke up the 
breeding farms, and that the destruction of horses by 
the British was so great, that in the year 1800 there 
was but one member of this famous stock left in Rhode 
Island. In Newport, while General Prescott was in 
command there, a Quaker gentleman who owned a 
very fine team of pacers offended the military autocrat 
by not lifting his hat in obeisance. Prescott ordered 
his servant to "knock off that old rebel's hat," and the 
very next day he sent for the Quaker's horses, which 
were ridden without rest till one at last was exhausted 
and was found by his master dying at the roadside. 



248 Narragansett Bay 

This story, which seems to be well founded, may indi- 
cated what became of the Narragansett pacers. 

" It has been claimed that the progenitors of the 
Narragansett farmers were superior in birth and breed- 
ing to other New England colonists," says Channing, 
and adds, " I do not find this to have been the case." 
Those who by the middle of the Eighteenth century had 
become the leaders in the King's Province, were for the 
most part much more highly educated than their fathers, 
a fact which does the fathers oreat credit, as it indicates 
their appreciation of learning that they themselves did 
not possess. The Updykes, Fayerweathers, Robinsons, 
and others of that day, were men of culture and scholar- 
ship. The hill known as McSparran's, not far from 
Boston Neck, perpetuates the name of one of the in- 
tellectual men of the middle colonial period. 

I have elsewhere spoken of Boston Neck, the rich 
strip of shore between the Pettaquamscutt River and 
the Bay, and north of the inlet. It was part of the 
great Brinley tract, and was purchased from Francis 
Brinley, Esquire, and Dame Deborah his wife, in 1 j^S, 
at about twenty-nine dollars an acre. The buyer, 
Thomas Hazard, was not only a man of substance 
and importance in the Colony, but of learning and 
cultivation. 

Isaac Peter Hazard has stated, on the authority of 
his grandmother, that her father, Robert Hazard, kept 
one hundred and fifty cows, with twelve women and 
their helpers in the dairy, from which was turned out 



The Narragansett Country 



249 



from twelve to twenty-four cheeses a day. He kept 
four thousand sheep, maufacturing both woollen and 
linen clothincr for his household. When he wished to 
retire from active farming and retrench his expenses, 




ULD APl'LE ORCHARD ON BOSTON NECK 



he congratulated himself upon having cut down his 
household to " only seventy in parlour and kitchen." 

In relation to the transmission of property, if a man 
died intestate, the English law of primogeniture was in 
force, and where a will was made there was usually 
a preference given to the eldest son. Furthermore, no 



250 Narragansett Bay 

man's real estate could be attached for debt, so longr 
as he was an actual resident of Rhode Island, These 
things all conspired to keep the great properties intact 
for a great many years, in spite of the rapidly increas- 
ing population. 

Only a man of " competent estate " could become a 
freeman and have a voice in town or county affairs. 
This rule dates back to 1663. In 1729 it was further 
enacted that the possession of a freehold of the value 
of ^200 was a necessary qualification for an elector. 
Only the eldest son of a freeholder could exercise the 
franchise without a property qualification. Such laws, 
discriminating as they did in favour of the freeholder, 
conspired with the social distinction and wealth of the 
Narragansett proprietors to foster an aristocracy that 
was without parallel in the colonies north of the 
Potomac. 

The people of this Colony were sprung from dis- 
senters of every degree. There were Puritans, Separ- 
atists, Baptists, and Quakers, but finally, in the course of 
years, the Episcopal Church became more prominent, 
suiting better, perhaps, the growing aristocratic tend- 
ency. Most of the original Pettaquamscutt purchasers 
were Conoreo-ationalists. The Robinsons, Hazards, 
and others were Quakers, or Friends as they preferred 
to be called. Both Baptists and Presbyterians had 
churches in Kingstown as early as the year 1700. 
Among all these people of various sects there were a 
number of French Huguenots, who left their native 



The Narragansett Country 251 

country upon the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. 
These had first settled in Massachusetts, and after- 
wards, under the leadership of Ezechiel Carre, Peter 
le Breton, and others, obtained a tract of land "above 
ye long meadow called Kickameeset, about Captain 
John Fones his house, wherein each family y' desires 
it shall have one hundred acres of land, " etc. A copy 
of the agreement binding the transfer of this property 
was signed in 1686 by Wharton, Hutchinson, and Saffin, 
for the proprietors, that is to say, the Atherton Com- 
pany. To purchase land of the Atherton Company was 
to buy a quarrel and endless litigation. The deeds of 
the poor French emigrants were in question from the 
very first, till the final decision was made by the courts 
aeainst the Atherton land claim, but as the descendants 
of many of those Frenchmen are still in the land, we 
must conjecture that the matter was in some way ad- 
justed and the Huguenot titles secured. 

When one gets gossiping with old records it is im- 
possible not to stray into by-paths. Let us go back 
for a moment to that Thomas Hazard, " yeoman," who 
lived upon Boston Neck and added to his father's pos- 
sessions till he became one of the great landed proprie- 
tors of the country. Part of his property he bought 
from Judge Sewall, whose wife Hannah was a daughter 
of John Hull. It is told, that when she was married, 
her father weighed her against a pile of " pine-tree shil- 
lings" till she was fairly balanced. As the lady was 
plump, her dower was, for that day, considerable. 



252 Narragansett Bay 

The deed of sale made out by Sewall and his wife 
was witnessed before John Whalley, whose name, as 
suggested, has possibly contributed to the local legend 
connecting Edward Whalley, the regicide, with the 
Narragansett country. 

One may hardly overestimate the luxury and the hos- 
pitality of the people who inhabited the Narragansett 
country before modern influences began to be felt. 
There was, if not a leisure class, at least a class of frank 
and rich country-gentlemen wdiose lives were not hard- 
ened by too much toil and wdio had time and inclination 
to cultivate certain social instincts and customs that in 
time they cherished as hereditary. The Narragansett 
planter loved to do things upon a large scale, hating as 
unworthy of his traditions whatever was mean or nig- 
gardly. His inclination was towards out-of-door sports 
and occupations, yet he did not neglect those gracious 
observances that marked the fine gentleman of his day. 
He cherished a becoming pride in all that belonged to 
him, was a most bormtiful provider and kept open house 
for all whose social rank entitled them to sit at his board. 
With all his pride, his lavish living, his comfortable for- 
tune and valued possessions, the gentleman of the Prov- 
idence plantations was hearty and generous rather than 
ostentatious, and above all things on earth he loved a 
practical joke. 

The education of children was not neglected by the 
Narragansett planters. The best tutors were imported 
to the Colony and the stripling was prepared either for 




i 



i)J:!i.' 




I 



i \ ! 

} 






The Narragansett Country 255 

one of the infant colleges of our own land or for some 
more pretentious seat of letters in the old world. 

In a typical country-house of the period there was 
always ample space for the reception of half the country- 
side. An army of cousins, to the sixth degree (and every 
one was kin to his neighbour in old King's Province) 
might gather for a romping dance and feast afterwards 
to heart's content without crowding. The great an- 
nual festival was that of Christmas, not observed by 
more puritanical colonists in New England, but made 
much of by the Rhode Islanders. The merrymaking 
lasted a week and resembled the traditional Christmas 
of old Eneland, when Enirland found time and inclina- 
tion to be merry. 

Even exceeding the mirth and conviviality of the 
Christmas festivities were the ardour and gaiety with 
which Narragansett society celebrated a wedding. That 
delightful combination of serious ceremony and un- 
bounded hilarity taxed even the generous dimensions of 
a Narragansett manor-house and strained the resources 
of a Narragansett larder. The people, from far and 
near, feasted and made merry for days and went home 
to treasure the recollection as one might remember a 
coronation. There is a record of a wedding entertain- 
ment given by Nicholas Gardner, in 1790, at which 
there were present six hundred guests. 

Among the dances fashionable at that day the minuet, 
with its stately grace, led the list, but there were others, 
the figures of which have long been forgotten, though 



256 Narragansett Bay 

their names suggest something Hveher and more romp- 
ing than the minuet. There for instance were Pea 
Straw, Boston's Delight, Haymaking, Lady Hancock, 
I'll Be Married In My Old Clothes, and others with 
names equally suggestive of the rollicking jollity of a 
hearty, wholesome lot of youngsters, among whom a 
stranger was rarely met. 

What halls and parlours those were that could hold 
such an army of merrymakers ; what dining-rooms that 
might have served for the mess-halls of regiments, and 
kitchens huge enough to supply the needs of such din- 
ing-rooms. Enormous fire-places furnished heat for 
these great chambers. The logs that fed them were 
hauled in cord lengths and rested upon great andirons 
that would alone fill a meagre, modern fire-place. The 
"fire dogs," as they were called, that /urnished the 
kitchen hearth were provided with turned up lips at con- 
venient intervals, to hold the spit upon which fowl or 
joint was roasted. The crane hung in the chimney and 
beside it, built into the chimney wall, was the oven, big 
enough for a modern bake-shop. 

It was no unusual thing then to hang upon the spit 
for roasting a quarter of lamb or a haunch of venison at 
the same time that turkeys, ducks, and fowl were being 
roasted. The food that came upon the planter's table 
was usually the product of his own prolific acres. If we 
are to believe the testimony of Rhode Island epicures 
there were no fruit nor vegetables in the world like 
Narragansett fruit and vegetables, no corn nor grain 



The Narragansett Country 257 

that could compare with Narragansett corn or grain, and 
no beef nor mutton, pork nor pouhry, that were fit to be 
mentioned in the same day with those grown in that 
favoured reoion. 

Sheplierd Tom — to quote once more from the Jonuy- 
cakc Papers — avers that 

In the olden time each dish of meat or fowl had its own special 
l)roper fixings, which with all good livers were deemed indispensa- 
ble. Roast beef, for instance, was always accompanied with a York- 
siiire pudding and cranberry sauce ; roast mutton with currant jelly; 
boiled mutton with round turnips ; roast lamb with mint sauce and 
green peas ; roast veal with horseradish, lemons (if to be had), as- 
paragus and dandelions, the best and wholesomest green in the 
world if properly boiled with a portion of the root attached. Roast 
turkey was always attended with boiled rice, onions, and cranberry 
sauce. The specialties of roast goose and duck were onions and 
apple sauce, the big cat-head apple being the finest grained, the best 
and the tartest for the purpose. 

Of course every great house had its smoke-houses, 
its place for grinding the flour and meal and hominy, 
the dairies where the milk was brought and emptied in 
great cedar " Keelers," before the days of milk pans, 
the spinning room where the mother of the household 
taught her maidens the housewifely arts of the wheel 
and the loom, and the store-rooms for home-made linen 
and woollen stuffs. Then a maid wrought with her own 
fingers the store of household furnishing that grew 
against the day when she should be mistress of a house 
of her own. 

While the men directed the affairs of the plantation, 
or arranged trials of speed between the choicest of the 



258 



Narragansett Bay 



" Narragansett pacers," the women held knitting-bees 
and rivalled each other in the production of tea-parties 
that have passed into a glorious tradition. Speaking 
of knitting-bees it is said that Governor Jonathan 
Trumbull, of Connecticut — the " Brother Jonathan " of 




HAUNTED MILL IN KINGSTOWN 



American caricature — came into Kingstown to get from 
the loyal women there wool mittens for the suffering 
Continental soldiers at Valley Forge. 

In connection with this subject it is of interest to 
know that the first power loom set up in America, was 
invented by Thomas R. Williams, of Newport, and was 
run in an old oil mill at Peacedale. Four of these 



The Narragansett Country 259 

machines were finally running at that place and turned 
out a hundred yards of linen a day, from flax crrown in 
Rhode Island. This was in 18 14 or 18 15 About 
1797, one of the Hazard's commenced the manufacture 
of linsey woolsey with wool brought by sailing vessels 
from Charleston, S. C. The manufacture of woollens 
was commenced in Peacedale in 1814, at which time 
wages were paid in kind, that is, in goods or provisions, 
at the rate of six or eight dollars a month and board. 
Thomas R. Hazard says: 

When I first began to manufacture I used to carry for years and 
years wool rolls about the country, to be spun upon hand wheels, 
then bring the yarn home and carry it to old Rit Perry to be scoured, 
and then again carry the yarn to Aser Stedman's to be colored, and 
then again bring the cloth home and all this on horseback. How 
many tliousands of miles I have ridden in that way, witli bundles 
of rolls and yarn on each side and before me, through sunshine, 
rain, snow, and storm, over bogs, stone walls, rocks, swamjjs, and 
the Devil knows what — it would be hard to tell. 

I have spoken of the general relationship existing 
between the old families of Kingstown. We find the 
Perrys, Reynolds, Potters, Smiths, Hazards, Saunders, 
Robinsons, and others, constantly recurring. It has 
been said that you could not throw a stone within ten 
miles of Pettaquamscutt without hitting a Hazard. It 
is said that at one time there were thirty-two Tom 
Hazard's living in Narragansett. Updike enumerates a 
few of them as follows : " College Tom Hazard; Bed- 
ford Tom — he lived in Bedford ; Barley Tom — raised 
large quantities of barley ; Virginia Tom — married from 



26o Narragansett Bay 

Virginia ; Little Neck Tom — he lived on Little Neck ; 
Nailor Tom — a blacksmith ; Rock Tom — from Rocky 
Farm ; Fiddle Head Tom ; Pistol Tom ; Young Pistol 
Tom ; Derrick Tom ; Short Stephen's Tom ; Long 
Stephen's Tom ; Tailor Tom; etc," In the Reynolds 
family there were almost as many Johns as there were 
Toms among the Hazards. "Squire" Lisha Potter is 
distinguished as the first man in that country to appear 
in a four-wheeled carriage, drawn by a span of horses. 
In this luxurious chariot the Squire drove home from 
Congress, in which he had represented his neighbours. 
James Robinson, who brought a wife home from Phila- 
delphia, about 1815, introduced the second four-wheeler 
into Narrao-ansett. Previous to that time the men had 
been content to go on horseback, and aged and invalid 
dames in their journeyings were more than content with 
the two-wheeled, one-horse chaise. 

There is reason to believe that before the advent of 
the white man these delightful shores were rather more 
thickly populated by Indians than was the case in most 
other parts of the country. The Narragansetts were 
powerful and prosperous and their numbers were not so 
far as we know depleted by the fearful epidemics that 
wrought such havoc among the Massachusetts tribes. 

It is said that there used to be a stone covert or 
watch-tower made by these Indians near the Petta- 
quamscutt and another at about the site of the South 
Pier. The first of these was destroyed many years 
ago. The great headquarters of the Narragansetts was, 








!i-Jr ;\fc2»j3ir-jii,i^'^/iMi:;i?i 



The Narragansett Country 263 

however, farther to the south-west, about Charlestown, 
where the remnant of the tribe has hngered clown nearly 
to the present day. Their last king was quite a noted 
character, locally. In that vicinity on Burying Hill 
these Indians had their grave-yard, in which the older 
graves are said to have been built of stone from top to 
bottom. 

Near Kingston there was a great swamp, not far from 
Wordon's pond, which is the source of the Pawcatuck 
River. The great swamp fight of 1675, which I have 
descibed in another place, occurred here. It was the 
last stand of the orallant tribesmen under Canonchet 
when the atrocities committed by the men of Salem and 
Plymouth excelled in horror the cruelty of the Indians 
themselves. 

The first building put up by a white man in the Nar- 
ragansett country, we are told, was Smith's block-house, 
near the present village of Wickford. Through Wick- 
ford, Wakefield, and Kingston, the old post-road used 
to run, the latter named place (formerly called Little 
Rest) having once been the seat of the State Assembly. 

Narragansett Pier is, of course, very modern. Thirty- 
three years ago there was nothing there but a few 
buildings near a coal pier and a little straggling village 
in the neighbourhood. The beach and the rocks were 
there, a few fishing crafts used to find a harbour in the 
inlet and perhaps an occasional farmer took a boarder 
or two. 

The first pier was built by John Robinson, a son of 



264 Narragansett Bay 

Governor William Robinson, and a thrilling story is 
told of an adventure that befell the Governor's grand- 
son while the pier was being built. The youngster, 
whose name was Sylvester, enjoyed swimming near the 
place where the work was going on. One day, as his 
father was watching the boy's antics, he saw to his 
horror the dorsal fin of a large man-eating shark slowly 
moving towards the unsuspecting swimmer. Realising 
the great danger there would be in alarming the boy 
and probably paralysing his strength, Mr. Robinson 
held up a Spanish silver piece and shouted to his son 
that he would give him that if he reached the shore in 
two minutes. Of course, young Robinson made a dash 
for the unusual prize, the value of which was relatively 
much higher at that day than it would be at the 
present. As he lessened the distance between himself 
and the coveted prize, the shark also seemed to scent 
prey and moved more swiftly through the water, though 
not yet fairly upon the boy's track nor exercising his 
full speed. 

The father, by this time almost frantic, saw the 
shark cutting down the space and moving ever more 
swiftly, yet he still held up the silver piece and en- 
couraged the boy with such words as he could command 
to do his best to win the prize. 

Just as he caught the breathless lad in his arms and 
swung him clear of the water the shark turned on his 
back and made a vicious but futile snap at the disap- 
pearing swimmer and then unable to check his own 



The Narragansett Country 267 

headway ran aground in the shoal water and was dis- 
patched by the axes of the carpenters. It is not re- 
corded that Sylvester Robinson indulged his desire for 
a swim any more at that point. We know that the pier 
was finished and that it stood for many years, a curious 
old crib of timber and stone with a derrick atop for 
hoisting in lumber and coal from the schooners. 

Between 1870 and 1880 the Pier had grown from a 
scattered village to a more compact mushroom town of 
inns and hotels of all sizes and varying degrees of dis- 
comfort. Shingle palaces were run up everywhere and 
now and then among them appeared more ornate and 
substantial buildings. The rare beauty of the shore, the 
salubrious climate and freedom from many of the ills 
that infest other resorts, brought Narragansett Pier into 
almost immediate popularity. It became a mint, a gold 
mine, for those who w^ere first in the field as caterers for 
the multitude that sought accommodations. Without 
ever attaining the fashionable rank of Newport, Narra- 
gansett Pier has almost without intermission for thirty 
years held her own among the most popular seaside re- 
sorts in America or indeed in the world. 

Point Judith has long been a puzzle to etymologists. 
The natives call it " Pint Judy Pint," but whether or not 
Judy is an abbreviation of Judith no one has yet deter- 
mined. There is a legend long repeated in Washington 
County, that may throw some light upon the subject, 
though like most mariners' yarns it may appropriately be 
taken with a grain of salt. The story goes that once 



268 Narragansett Bay 

upon a time an old sea captain of Nantucket or there- 
abouts, took his wife with him upon a voyage along the 
coast, and being enveloped in a fog he made her look- 
out. After awhile the woman piped out "land ! " 

" Whar away?" bellowed her lord. 

" Why right over there, just the other side of all those 
ropes," she answered excitedly. 

" T' other side o' fiddlesticks," roared the captain. 
"Can't you tell me in straight talk, whar away?" 

Now it happened that the captain's wife was unac- 
quainted with nautical terms, and while she could do 
many useful things she could no more have boxed the 
compass than she could have flown, so presently another 
order came from the impatient steersman : 

" Pint ! Judy, pint ! " 

Then Judy " pinted," and the shore she had discov- 
ered and indicated was ever afterwards known as Pint 
Judy Pint. 

There are those who say that the point was named 
after the wife of Mintmaster John Hull, of Boston, 
whose name chanced to be Judith ; but other wiseacres 
claim that the earlier maps do not show Judith, but Juda 
or Judah. It is true that many of the well known land- 
marks about Narragansett Bay have either had their 
names greatly modified or changed by careless usage, or 
else the cartographers have been frequently inaccurate 
in their spelling of place names. Gould Island, for ex- 
ample, appears as Gold Island in an old chart ; Spar 
Island, so called, in Mount Hope Bay, was and is still 



The Narragansett Country 269 

put down on the maps as Sparrow Island ; the Provi- 
dence River was formerly Prudence River, and Dutch 
Island appeared a hundred years ago as Duck Island. 
These are a few of many cases where old charts and 
modern usage are at variance. 



Chapter X 

Ghosts at Newport 

THE shore side of Newport is a combination of 
weather-stained age and unmitigated brand- 
newness. One explores its narrow streets, that 
seem to have been preserved with all their distinctive 
eighteenth-century landmarks, unspoiled by time or 
carpenters, to issue upon avenues bordered with modern 
parks and palaces. The oldest street in town is still 
the busiest, and a motley crowci, such as may not be 
found upon any other thoroughfare in the countr)-, 
throngs this one. There are sailors of all nationalities, 
from merchantmen, private yachts, and men-of-war; 
gazing, hurrying, loitering, jabbering. There go a 
company of marines, keeping a tolerable formation 
under difficulties ; they work their way like a shuttle 
from side to side through a throng of officers, yachts- 
men, loungers, hucksters, women, and children. Ladies 
intent upon their marketing or shopping, maids not 
unconscious of the notice of youthful blue-jackets, 
people of all degrees upon all sorts of errands, overrun 
the inadequate sidewalk and share the road with the 
few vehicles that chance to crawl that way. 

270 



Ghosts at Newport 271 

The houses that enclose this ancient street are for 
the most part small and unpretentious, but attractive to 
the architect or the antiquary. Many of them have old- 
fashioned doors, occasionally adorned with side lights, 
upper balconies give an old world aspect to the scene, 
and gambrel roofs are ornamented with antique gables. 
Though not to be compared in beauty with many of the 
old houses of Bristol, these of Thames Street suggest 
a greater antiquity. Many of them present the gable 
end to the street, and there are still in places sugges- 
tions of old-fashioned gardens behind their walls. 

The reason for the narrowness of Thames Street is 
to be found in the fact that when it was laid out the 
houses were all upon the upper side, that is to say, the 
side farthest from the water, and the public thorough- 
fare which ran by their very doors was supposed to be 
over one hundred feet in width, the water front for each 
house lying upon the opposite side of the street. A 
gentleman of the day might sit on his front porch and 
observe all that took place on land or water. The final 
defeat of this pleasant arrangement was caused by the 
house-holders themselves ; as they, being merchants, 
found it convenient at first to build wharves for their 
vessels, and then to erect buildings for their merchan- 
dise, so obstructing their view of the harbour. Gradu- 
ally the buildings upon the lower side of the street 
crowded more and more, till it has become one of the 
narrowest in New England. There can be little doubt 
that the water front at present is much of it made- 



2 72 Narragansett Bay 

ground, and that the wharves of to-day stretch much 
farther into the harbour than did those of an earher time. 

The expense of paving Thames Street in 1 768 was 
defrayed by the estabhshment of a lottery, called the 
Thames Street Lottery, and authorized by the Assembly. 
As is well known, the consciences of our ereat-orrand- 
fathers found nothing objectionable in a lottery, and 
more than one list of the patrons of this once popular 
form of gambling was headed with the honoured name of 
Washington. Hospitals, galleries, colleges, and even 
churches were built with funds raised by that method. 

William Coddington, John Coggeshall, Nicholas Eas- 
ton, William Brenton, John Clarke, Jeremy Gierke, 
Henry Bull, and Thomas Hazard, with William Dyer as 
clerk, were the founders of Newport. Because of the 
stand taken by some of them in the Ann Hutchinson 
controversy and for liberal viev/s which they held in dis- 
sent from the rulings of the Massachusetts theocracy, 
these men were forced out of the older settlement and 
set forth to establish in the wilderness a community 
where men might be free to think and to worship with- 
out molestation. 

Their first idea was to travel to Delaware, favourable 
reports of that fertile country having reached New Eng- 
land, but having halted for a little while at Providence 
they were strongly urged by Roger Williams to consider 
Aquidneck, which, he pointed out to them, had every 
advantage possessed by the more distant region towards 
which they had set their faces. 



Ghosts at Newport 273 

The first settlement made by these men and their 
companions was Pocasset (Portsmouth), where they 
stayed for a year. Then the leaders went to mark out 
the site for a town upon the southern end of the island, 
forseeing the advantage for trade that its excellent po- 
sition offered. Like all the early Rhode Island towns, 
except Bristol, Newport was founded in dissent. Her 
first settlers were for the most part remarkable men and 
worthy of more than a passing notice. I propose pres- 
ently to give an account of several of them. 

In May, 1639, Mr. Jeffrey, William Dyer, and John 
Clarke were empowered by the company to lay out the 
ground for the town to be called Newport. Previous to 
that, however, an amusing incident occurred in connec- 
tion with clearinor the site of the future town. There 
were hollows so choked with bushes and undergrowth 
that the pioneers looked at them in despair of ever get- 
ting rid of the encumbrance. Tradition says that when, 
with great reluctance, they were about to abandon the 
place, an Indian offered to clear the ground for a 
coat with brass buttons, the same being worn by Mr. 
Coddington. One is seldom in dire need of a coat at 
Newport and the leader readily promised to close the 
bargain. To his chagrin the Indian took the obvious 
method of burning the brush and in a few hours came 
to claim his award. 

William Coddington, the first of the Newport colo- 
nists in influence and distinction, was a man of no small 
importance in the colony from which he had been invited 



2 74 Narragansett Bay 

to depart. That he enjoyed a greater proportion 
of worldly goods than fell to the share of most of the 
exiles, is shown by the greater costliness of his dwell- 
ings, as well as by the traditions concerning his style of 
living. Evidently a gentleman of high birth, he brought 
into the wilderness an escutcheon bearing the coat-of- 
arms of his family, which is even now preserved in the 
city he helped to found. The house he left in Boston 
was the first brickhouse ever built in that colony. 

In 1640, he was chosen Governor of the united 
colony of Newport and Portsmouth. He stood at that 
time rather as the representative of the aristocratic 
element in the settlement, as opposed to the more 
democratic section. In one essential particular, New- 
port and Providence were as far apart as the poles : in 
the former place the controlling influence was that of 

the eighteen men of standing, some of them of cultiva- 
te te' 

tion, who were the leaders of the exodus. In the latter, 
Roger Williams, with one or two supporters, tried 
often vainly to stem the tide of lawlessness that 
his fellow - colonists too frequently confounded with 
liberty. 

At one time, when the prosperity of the Aquidneck 
colony seemed to be assured, Coddington tried to ob- 
tain and did actually secure for a time, a personal grant 
giving him a power at least equal to that of the 
" Patroons " on the Hudson River. That his fellow 
townsmen resented this and succeeded in having the 
patent rescinded, and that they afterwards forgave him 





IS 



SKA WALL AT NEWPORT. FROM THE Cl.IKF WALK 



275 



Ghosts at Newport 277 

and elected him again as their Governor, are matters 
of history. 

John Clarice should perhaps rank next to Roger 
Williams as the citizen to whom Rhode Island owed 
most in her formative years. He obtained the great 
charter which was the basis of Rhode Island's govern- 
ment for one hundred and eighty years, and which re- 
mained in force after the Colony became a State, down 
to 1843, the date of the adoption of the present con- 
stitution, at which time it was referred to as the oldest 
constitutional charter in existence. Of it the great 
Stephen Hopkins said : " It doubtless contained more 
liberal provisions than did any similar instrument ever 
granted by a monarch." 

Rhode Island's first patent was granted in 1639-47, 
through the strenuous exertions of Roger Williams ; 
the second was won by the no less remarkable exertions 
of John Clarke, and subsequently, during the famous 
boundary disputes in which Massachusetts and Con- 
necticut strove to reduce Rhode Island to nothing 
between them, he remained in London, fighting almost 
single-handed for the rights of his fellow-colonists 
against a combination of wealth, ability, and intiuence. 
It is not a small matter to record that he won his fight. 

John Coggeshall, who like most of his companions 
earned the animosity of the Massachusetts elders by his 
attempted interference in the trial of Ann Hutchinson, 
was first Moderator of the first Colonial Assembly of 
Rhode Island. In 1682 we find him appointed Major 



278 Narragansett Bay 

of a militia company of cavalry for the Island. He was 
elected to succeed Coddington at Portsmouth when the 
latter went to found Newport and, by the way, took 
the offices and records with him. 

William Brenton was another man of substance who 
served the colony in several public offices. He was 
President under the old patent, from 1660 till 1662, 
and second Governor under the Charles H. charter, 
serving from 1666 to 1669. For the three years pre- 
vious to this term he had been Deputy-Governor to 
Benedict Arnold. Brenton's name is a familiar one» 
from its association with the Cape or " Neck" in which 
Aquidneck terminates, as well as with that dangerous 
shoal known as Brenton's Reef, where for many years a 
light-ship has been stationed. 

A history of Brenton's Neck was printed in the New- 
port Merctu^y in 1853 and afterwards reprinted in 1877 
in a little volume, the edition being limited to twenty- 
five copies. This rare and valuable monograph, the 
material for which was largely gathered from journals 
left by Benjamin Brenton, furnishes much interesting 
matter not elsewhere obtainable. I have drawn from 
this source among others for the following account. 

Brenton's Neck, as the peninsular which forms so 
important a portion of Newport is called, was the estate 
of William Brenton. Its northern boundary ran in a 
straight line east from the " Lime Rocks," and upon all 
other sides was the sea-shore. The Neck included 
altogether over two thousand acres " of the richest soil 



Ghosts at Newport 279 

and presenting the most picturesque scenery, diversified 
with hills, valleys, bays, and ponds, fields adorned with 
the most luxurious grass, jutting rocks fringed with 
rich foliage, mingled with wild flowers ; trees of superior 
growth, the hemlock, spruce, and cedar, the oak, maple, 
and chestnut, crowned the summit of the hills ; and 
east of the little cove shadows of the majestic oak were 
oft reflected in the mirrored surface which smoothly 
rested around the rocky base that sustained them." 

William Brenton's house was built of brick brouLdit 
from Boston, and was distinguished by having four 
chimneys, an architectural feature that gave the place 
its popular name, " The Chimneys," The fact that the 
date upon one of the chimneys of this mansion was 
1638 gives one a curious feeling that possibly some 
details of history should be re-written. 1638 was the 
year of Brenton's banishment, when he and his wife 
moved to Rhode Island ; consequently a year earlier 
than the laying out of Newport. 

Coddington, Coggeshall, William Baulston, Edward 
Hutchinson, Samuel Wilbor, John Porter, Henry Bull, 
Philip Sherman, William Freeborn, and Richard Car- 
den, the associates of Brenton, while not actually ban- 
ished from Massachusetts, were warned either to depart 
or to appear in court to answer objections against them 
by opponents who could by no means be brought to 
listen to their arguments or condone their Antinomian 
heresy. The order " permitting " the fathers of New- 
port to depart from Massachusetts was equivalent to 



28o Narragansett Bay 

banishment and is usually referred to by that term. A 
matter which affords some food for thought is that one 
of the exiles, in the very year of his expatriation, should 
have built a house palatial for that day and place, a 
" four chimney " house, of material brought from the 
Colony from which he had been invited to emigrate. I 
am inclined tJ believe that the date upon the chimney 
did not indicate the year of the erection of the house 
but rather was intended to commemorate the family 
exodus. The mansion in question was one hundred 
and fifty feet square, with a hall sixteen feet wide run- 
nine throuofh the centre of it. The roof was a flat 
deck, with seats, promenade, and railing. 

It seems evident from many circumstances that the 
Rhode Island settlers brought with them their worldly 
goods without molestation, and that the Puritans of the 
Bay, though averse to being contaminated by their 
precepts or example, made no objection to communi- 
cating in the way of trade, and received as welcome 
customers the men that they refused to cherish as 
neighbours and for whom they kept the scaffold in 
repair. 

One thing should be clearly understood : the Aquid- 
neck settlers were not a poor starveling band. They 
were, not a few of them, men of wealth, and they 
brought their wealth with them. 

Brenton's place was divided into the east and west 
farms, under one name of Hammersmith, after his 
home in England. Around his house old-time gardens 



»'>«!!SfH*,- ^-aaSSgp^Sm: 




Ghosts at Newport 283 

and orchards " fruited deep," while groups of the great 
forest trees were left to break the otherwise uninter- 
rupted view of sky and ocean. Along the shores and 
between the hills native small fruits and many wild 
flowers grew in abundance. In that wonderful climate, 
since become world-famous, roses and the rarer garden 
beauties from the old world flourished in rich profusion 
between formal borders of box. Roads were laid out 
to the different parts of the Neck and buildings erected 
for the shelter of flocks and herds and the convenience 
of dependents. Price's Neck was the site of a small 
house built by Brenton for the family shoemaker, im- 
ported (it was before the importation of contract labour 
was banned) from England. Here also the gentlemen 
of Newport were wont at a time to come for the ex- 
cellent shootino- and fishingf the Neck beingr a famous 
ground for teal, canvas-back, and other birds. Deer 
abounded in the woods and sometimes the settlers 
found difficulty with less gentle neighbours. 

On Rocky Farm, as his son Jahleel called the east 
farm, William Brenton built a small house for his herds- 
men, for he had at one time, besides horses and cattle, 
eleven thousand sheep. Down by the Point where 
Fort Adams now is, there was no attempt at cultiva- 
tion, as for many years the marshy nature of the soil 
made it nearly valueless to the planter. 

The election of William Brenton to the Presidency 
of the Colony, in May, 1660, occurred just before the 
restoration of the house of Stuart to the British throne 



284 Narragansett Bay 

and previous to the granting of the second, or Charles 
II. charter. The news of the downfall of the Protecto- 
rate and the entrance of the King into London did not 
reach the Colony till the eighteenth of the following 
October, five months after the event. Brenton, as 
President, sitting with the Board of Commissioners at 
Warwick at that time, ordered a day of thanksgiving to 
be observed in each town in the Colony, and — boon 
never to be forgotten by the children and servants — 
processions with music. What delectable music if 
must have been. The sackbut and psaltery, ram's-horn 
and dulcimer, the high sounding cymbals, and all the 
obsolete musical inventions of Israel, could hardly have 
discoursed stranger or wilder music than did the fiddles, 
horns, kettle-drums, and fifes, in the hands of the un- 
skilled negroes, as they paraded the newly laid out 
streets of Portsmouth, Warwick, Little Rest, or 
Newport. 

In the centre of one procession Cromwell, repre- 
sented in efiigy, was escorted by Satan, whose hand 
firmly clutched the wig of the late Protector, while 
some patriotic elocutionist spouted the following poetic 

stanza : 

Old Cromwell, man, your time has come, 
We tell it here with fife and drum; 
And Satan's hand is on your head, 
He 's come for you before you 'r dead. 
And on his spear he '11 throw you in 
The very worst place that ever was seen. 
For good King Charles is on his throne 
And Parliament and you '11 let him alone. 



Ghosts at Newport 285 

Bonfires were kindled on many hills and points, and 
whoever hesitated to celebrate the restoration wisely 
kept his political heresies to himself. 

Brenton's will furnishes an instructive inventory of 
the property of a well-to-do-colonist of the first genera- 
tion of Englishmen in America. It includes six or 
eight farms, besides other parcels of realty, more than 
a dozen houses, live stock upon each farm, besides 
seventy or more horses, thirty-four or more head of 
cattle, and eleven thousand sheep : the total valuation 
being equivalent to over fifty thousand dollars, a good 
fortune for that day. On Brenton's Neck the British 
soldiers were stationed. There they cut down the 
forest trees, a noble grove of oaks included, and made 
the beautiful park and farms a desolate waste : there, 
when they were leaving, they burned their barracks. 

It was on Brenton's Neck, speaking of trees, that the 
first Rhode Island greening apple tree matured, and 
here also the russet is said to have found its first home 
upon American soil. One point of land was so covered 
with luscious cherry trees, planted either by William 
Brenton or his son Jahleel, that it was called Cherry 
Neck. Pears, plums, peaches, grapes, in profusion — in 
fact every fruit known to Europeans of that day — were 
cultivated successfully upon ground that now is occupied 
by imposing modern residences, and beautified (though 
the process suggests painting the lily) by the hand of 
the landscape gardener. 

The second owner of the Hammersmith house of the 



286 Narragansett Bay 

four chimneys was active during the Indian troubles in 
affording a refuge for the homeless victims of savage 
warfare. After trying in vain to rouse the authorities 
of Newport to take defensive measures, Jahleel Brenton 
removed to Boston, where he remained for several 
years, till sent to England as an envoy from that 
colony. Later he filled the office of London agent for 
Rhode Island, and at last returned to America as tax 
commissioner. 

A description of Newport given by Jahleel Brenton 
pictures an almost ideal settlement. It was increasing 
in population, the people were prosperous and no one 
was unemployed. Business was the " moving spring 
among all classes of people." There were no drinking- 
places, gambling-houses, or other evil resorts; intem- 
perance was unknown ; there were no poor, and the 
prison was almost unused. The business men of the 
place generally relaxed from toil during the afternoon, 
and it was customary for the leading citizens to enter 
each other's houses, or sit at each other's tables " like 
brothers, without ceremony." 

Another of the company who came out with the 
Newport settlers was William Dyer, clerk, whose wife 
Mary was afterwards executed in Boston — murdered, 
as George Fox said, for her faith. He was a man of 
prominence in the colony and filled at one time the 
ofiice of General Recorder. There are many of his de- 
scendants in the State to-day. Robert Hazard after- 
wards went into the Narragansett country and has 



Ghosts at Newport 287 

almost as many descendants as Abraham, whom he 
also resembled in his general account of flocks and 
herds. They were a rare company, these old founders, 
whose names should be honoured in Rhode Island's tem- 
ple of fame. Their rich domain of Aquidneck they 
bought for a song — forty fathoms of white wampum 
paid to the former Indian owners and perhaps a con- 
sideration to the agents who secured the sale — though 
I think that hardly possible, considering that one of 
these was Roger Williams and the other Sir Harry 
Vane. 

The first industry of importance to occupy the atten- 
tion of the Aquidneck settlers seems to have been the 
cutting and shipping of timber, in which, as we have 
seen, the island abounded. Ship-building almost imme- 
diately followed, and to this industry particularly was 
the early prosperity of Newport due. 

One hundred and sixty-five years ago the interesting 
and dignified old building known in Newport as the 
State House was commenced, its erection being author- 
ised by the General Assembly of 1739. ^^^ architect 
was Richard Munday, whose skill and taste time has 
amply approved. A substantial classic structure of 
stone and brick, it faces the tree-shaded Parade, and 
from the balcony over the west entrance many an event 
of public importance has been announced to the wait- 
ing crowds that filled that green auditorium. Here the 
people of Newport in bygone days have been agitated 
by the tidings of a King's death, and have cheered 



288 Narragansett Bay 

themselves hoarse at the proclamation of his successor. 
Here they have heard the result of state elections, the 
messages of men high in authority, the mournful news 
of public calamity. 

The merchants of the town met here, in 1774, to 
plan measures of resistance against the introduction of 
tea ; the Assembly here accepted the Declaration of In- 
dependence, which Major John Handy read from the 
balcony to an excited throng. 

The old State House was used by both the British 
and the French in succession as a hospital, and when 
the Assembly would have met there in 1780 the build- 
ing was found to have suffered so much from hard 
usage and neglect that the legislators were forced to 
hold their meeting in Providence. 

The glory of the State House has departed. It is 
no longer anything but an empty shell, a body from 
which the soul has Hown, since the once rival city of 
Providence became the sole capital of Rhode Island, 
and all the business of official life is departed. 

In the Senate Chamber the full-length portrait of 
Washington looks somewhat sadly over the dusty and 
deserted desks. The only step that ever disturbs the 
quiet of the conscious stair is that of some chance 
visitor, who makes a solitary and melancholy echo. 

Facino; the Parade and in its neicrhbourhood are not 
a few of the most interesting old dwellings of Newport, 
some of them now, alas, perverted to baser uses. The 
old Custom- House, on Queen Street, was long since 



Ghosts at Newport 289 

destroyed by fire ; the Pitts-Head tavern occupied 
orround where, after its destruction, the Odd Fellows 
Hall was erected. The Hazard house, the Nichols 
house. Commodore O. H. Perry's home, the Lopez 
mansion, the Wanton house, and many another inter- 
esting reminder of the past, have been preserved till 
recent years and some of them are still standing. 

It is but a short walk from here to Touro Park and 
Governor Benedict Arnold's old stone windmill, that 
for so many years was falsely honoured as a relic of the 
Icelandic voyagers of the eleventh century. It is, not- 
withstanding the exposure of its spurious pretensions, 
a most picturesque old ruin and a veritable antique, if 
judged as it should be by American standards. 

William Coddineton first built on the north side of 
Marlborough Street, in 1O41, a house that, however it 
might appear to a later generation, was doubtless a 
mansion of considerable pretension in his time. One 
has but to consider a country devoid of machinery for 
dressing wood or making brick, to appreciate what a 
two-story building, surmounted by a broad shingle roof 
and furnished with large brick chimneys, must have 
cost in that wilderness. The timbers we may suppose 
were hewn near by, but probably every brick came 
from the other side of the ocean, and certainly each 
shingle was cut and trimmed by hand. On Codding- 
ton's Cove there was another house of earlier date than 
the one in the town. These houses descended to the 
last Coddington, who left the colony when the British 



290 Narragansett Bay 

appeared in the Revolutionary days. Unhappily he en- 
trusted numerous records which were in his hands to a 
friend, and they have irrevocably disappeared. 

In their day the Coddington family were of great im- 
portance, and together with the Wantons, Malbones (or 
Malborns), Godfreys, Brentons, Cranstons, and others 
of that station constituted the aristocracy of Newport. 

There was a time when creeds seemed of more im- 
portance than principles, and nearly all of the colonies 
were steeped in some peculiar form of wrong-doing. 
Virginia, led by her dram-drinking, fox-hunting, roister- 
ing parsons, was sowing a lavish crop of wild oats 
and enjoying the exercise. Massachusetts, by the way 
of antithesis, pulled a long face and engaged in persecu- 
tions that appear to have afforded her elders a melan- 
choly satisfaction. Whipping, burning, hanging, and 
banishing folk who disagree with one's pet dogmas, 
may seem a severe and sombre pastime, but no doubt 
it had points to commend it to the Puritan temper. 

About the same time little old New York was 
steeped in iniquities of which Thomas Janvier has 
been the entertaining historian, and if we are not mis- 
informed, her pirates infested the high seas and took 
toll of every merchantman they could overhaul. Now 
in all fairness should we not expect that the men that 
Massachusetts rejected and that New York refused to 
receive should have indulged in little peccadillos like 
the rest of the world, and have developed pet iniquities 
of their own. 



Ghosts at Newport 291 

In the land of Roger Williams there were Baptists, 
Quakers, and other good people who habitually went 
down to the sea in ships and did business in the great 
waters, and while searching the world over for the 
kinds of merchandise that would yield the greatest 
return for the capital invested and the labour bestowed, 
they hit upon two commodities, even rum and negroes. 
Some very tender-hearted historians have tried to white- 
wash the slave trade and dilute the rum trade till the 
old Narragansett adventurers would hardly recognise 
their own portraits. But tradition and records go hand 
in hand to show that the holds of not a few of the 
Rhode Island merchantmen of colonial times were 
laden with goods of a very shocking character. 

Godfrey and John Malbone were in the slave trade, 
and one of their vessels with a cargo of negroes was 
bound for Narragansett Bay, when a pirate hove in 
sight and gave chase. The captain, who had no notion 
of abandoning his valuable chattels, called upon the 
blacks to stand by him, promising them a reward if 
they did so. Consenting to the proposition, they were 
armed with cutlasses, and when the corsairs attempted 
to board, met them with such fury that they were glad 
to escape. It is said that the slaves were well rewarded, 
though evidently freedom was considered beyond their 
deserts. Malbone, the elder, had a large farm in Con- 
necticut, and many of the negroes were taken there, 
where their descendants lived for many years. 

John Brown, the eminent merchant of Providence, 



292 



Narragansett Bay 



from whom are descended some very prominent people 
in Rhode Island, was largely interested in the slave 
trade, as were also a number of the leading men of 
Bristol. There were very few Newport merchants who 
were not eneagfed in that business while it was at its 
height. Forty or fifty vessels are reported to have 




SHORE ROCKS BEYOND THE PUBLIC BATHING BEACH AT NEWPORT 

been at one time engaged in this traffic. Not a few of 
the merchants who found a profit in it were Quakers, and 
we are told that they made good and indulgent masters. 
*' To see the negro women with their black hoods and 
blue aprons, walking at a respectful distance behind 
their masters to meeting was not an unpleasant sight 
on those days." 

The Malbones owned a brig named the Dolphiiiy 



Ghosts at Newport 293 

which met with a disaster " that caused painful anguish 
to many hearts," In the year 1767 she was bound 
home from Jamaica, with a rich lading of sugar and 
rum. There were a number of passengers on board, 
members of a theatrical company who were en route to 
Newport, When off Point Judith a fire was discovered 
in the hold and, in spite of every effort to control it, 
spread so rapidly that the passengers and crew were 
obliged to take to the boats ; five women were unable 
to escape and the cargo was a total loss. Among those 
who were saved in the boats was Mr, Henry, "the 
father of the American staije," but the actor's wife and 
dauorhter were burned to death. The accident occurred 
from the carelessness of the cabin boy, who held a 
liofhted candle near a stream of rum which he was draw- 
ing from a cask in the hold. 

The loss of two large vessels, fitted out at Newport, 
in 1745, as privateers, claims notice. One of them was 
commanded by Captain Cranston and the other by Cap- 
tain Brewer, They were twin ships, carrying twenty- 
two guns each, and were destined for the Spanish 
Main, where it was expected that they would do a 
lucrative business in overhauling merchantmen. They 
waited till a soothsayer had cast their horoscope, to de- 
termine the proper day for sailing, and upon the desig- 
nated time set out (it was the day before Christmas) 
in the teeth of a driving snow-storm. They were never 
heard from afterwards. These ships were partly owned 
by Col, Godfrey Malbone, " The loss," we read, " was 



294 Narragansett Bay 

considered as one of the greatest calamities that ever 
befell the town ; besides the loss of property, upwards 
of four hundred lives were sacrificed and nearly two 
hundred women became widows by this disaster." 

Captain John Dennis was another of those whose 
careers as gallant seamen ended in disaster. The mer- 
chants of Newport, having fitted out the Tay, a priva- 
teer of eighteen guns, with a crew of one hundred 
and eighty men, chose Dennis, who had distinguished 
himself upon several occasions, to command her. She 
sailed upon the 22d of August, 1756, and was never 
heard from again. Thomas, the son of this John 
Dennis, was a celebrated merchant of Newport, and 
another son. Captain William, commanded no less than 
thirteen privateers during the War for Independence. 

A grandson of Governor Coddington — William Cod- 
dington, Esquire — together with several other well- 
known Newport men, were killed by the explosion of a 
magazine in which was stored powder designed for use 
on two privateers then being fitted out. 

A curious story of an unguided vessel is preserved in 
some of the old Newport annals. In the year 1750, 
a Mr. Isaac Steele, merchant, of Newport, looked 
anxiously for an overdue brig, owned by him, which 
was to bring a valuable cargo from the bay of Hon- 
duras. A vessel which had sighted her two days out 
at sea came into port. Mr. Steele and his friends 
watched the harbour mouth in vain, till early one morn- 
ing, standing in from the eastward, the brig appeared 



Ghosts at Newport 295 

with all sails set, heading for Easton's Beach. When 
close in she altered her course, rounded the rocks, and 
came quietly ashore at the northwest corner of the 
beach. Those who had watched her strang-e manoeuvres 
with surprise lost no time in getting aboard, where, to 
their astonishment, they found no living thing but a dog 
and cat. The table in the cabin was set as for break- 
fast, a fire was blazing in the cuddy and a kettle boiling 
over it ; but no trace of captain or crew was ever 
found. 

The subsequent history of this abandoned vessel, 
that sailed home unpiloted, is not without interest. 
She was gotten off the sandy bed she had chosen, and 
being practically uninjured, was taken around to God- 
frey Malbone's wharf, where she was sold to a merchant 
named Henry Collins. Under the name of the Beach 
Bird she made many successful voyages, and was still 
serviceable when the British took Newport. Having 
been captured with other shipping at that time, she 
was cut down and converted into an armed galley. 

Gravelly Point, opposite Newport, was the scene of 
the hanging of twenty-six pirates, taken in 1723, by 
the Greyho2i7id, British ship-of-war. The bodies were 
buried on Goat Island, and popular superstition long 
peopled the locality with their ghosts. Other pirates 
were executed "in the lot near the Powder House," 
in Newport, which afterwards bore the name of the 
Gallows Field. 

One of the old romances of Newport, which might be 



296 Narragansett Bay 

deemed improbable as fiction, comes to us with all the 
evidences of truth, and is worth retelling. One Samuel 
Cranston, the son of the Governor of the Colony and a 
prominent business man of Newport, set sail for Jamaica 
during the French war of i 755. Buccaneers attacked the 
vessel while off the coast of Florida, and he alone of all 
on board was saved alive. The pirates compelled him 
to work as a common sailor, and for seven years he re- 
mained as a slave among them, till one day an oppor- 
tunity offered to escape. Alone in a boat in mid-ocean 
he drifted till nearly exhausted, when an English vessel 
picked him up and carried him to Halifax, whence he 
worked his way to Boston, In that city alarming news 
reached him. His wife, widowed as she supposed for 
seven years, was about to marry again, her second 
choice being a Mr. Russell of Boston. Cranston was 
not long in reaching Newport, where finding that the 
ceremony which would make his wife the mate of 
another and offer him the choice of the role of Enoch 
Arden or of being the cause of a domestic scandal had 
not yet taken place, without divulging his name he 
sought an audience with Mrs. Cranston, x^t first she 
refused him, but he sent her a message to the effect 
that he had lately seen her husband. Overcome with 
who shall say what emotion, the lady left the wedding 
preparations in which she was engaged and hastened 
to learn what this strange sailor had to tell. At first 
she failed to recognise him, but finally at some familiar 
word or look she knew him and rushed into his arms. 





it^^^^- 



i.i.jLr'..^ 




1:. _....t. 



Ghosts at Newport 299 

calling him her dear husband, and rejoicing at his re- 
turn. Now the sympathy of the reader of this tale 
must be extended, in part at least, to the unfortunate 
Russell, who was still waiting for his bride, and it will 
be somewhat of a shock to twentieth-century sensibili- 
ties to learn that Mrs. Cranston paid no regard to 
him whatever. While Cranston was being washed and 
dressed into some semblance of his former self, the ex- 
pectant bridegroom and the minister waited in the 
parlour, nor did they have any intimation of the surprise 
in store for them till Mrs. Cranston entered, leaning 
upon her husband's arm. At that, we are informed, 
" The scene was worthy of the chisel of the artist and 
produced emotions of delight in the minds of the 
guests." 

Mr. Russell, with true magnanimity, not only in- 
sisted that Cranston and his wife be married again, at 
which ceremony he gave the bride away, but is actually 
said to have giver her as a dower the amount he had 
intended to settle upon her when she became Mrs. 
Russell. 

As Aquidneck established the first absolutely free 
school in America, — or in the world, — so at an early date 
it had also one of the best libraries to be found in the 
New World. The Redwood library cannot claim ex- 
traordinary merit to-day for either the size or value of 
its collection of books, but it has a monumental signifi- 
cance as an indication of the culture and aims of a 
generation long dead. Bishop Berkeley, landing in 



300 Narragansett Bay 

Newport in 1728, found among the more cultivated 
people a predilection for literature, philosophy, and the 
arts, and by precept and the influence of personal aims 
he fostered that taste. A philosophical society was 
organised by him in conjunction with Mr. Honeyman, 
who had been sent to these shores by the Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. Some 
books desiofned for the Bermuda Colleofe were the first 
that fell into their hands, but before long it was appre- 
ciated that the Society must have at least the nucleus 
of a library of its own. While the question was being 
discussed Abraham Redwood, who was one of the 
members, donated ^500 sterling for the purchase of 
books. Such was the beginning of the Redwood library, 
which for nearly a century and three quarters has been 
one of the notable institutions of Newport. When 
fairly under way the Redwood library was second only 
to that of Harvard in the number and excellence of its 
volumes. Five thousand pounds were subscribed for a 
building, and the library association was formerly organ- 
ised, with Mr. Redwood as its president. His asso- 
ciates on the Board of Directors were the Rev. James 
Honeyman, the Rev. John Callender, Henry Collins, Ed- 
ward Scott, Samuel Wickham, John Tillinghast, and 
Peter Bours. The ground was given by Collins and the 
severely classical building designed by architect Peter 
Harrison soon rose, to stand through the years as a 
memorial of the cultivated taste of colonial Newport. 
In connection with the Redwood library a some- 



Ghosts at Newport 301 

what extensive and very interesting and valuable collec- 
tion of paintings, mostly portraits of men prominent in 
Rhode Island, has grown to goodly proportions. The 
portrait of Redwood, in his Quaker garb, has by right 
the most prominent place in the gallery, though it is not 
an original, but a three-quarter length copy painted by 
Charles B. King. King's own portrait and that of 
Doctor William J. Walker are respectively on the right 
and left of Redwood. 

The portrait of Governor Coddington was copied 
from the original in the City Hall. Wanton, the last 
Tory Governor, is represented by a fine original like- 
ness that was painted in England. Here are also 
the portraits of Bishop Berkeley, Commodore Perry, 
Decatur, Rodgers, and many another scholar or hero. 
Several of the Presidents of the United States are re- 
presented, along with many of her leading statesmen and 
generals. It is unnecessary to enumerate these treas- 
ures that for visitors form one of the chief attractions 
of the town. Other libraries than the Redwood there 
have been and are, but none that has been so notably 
associated with the history and growth of Newport. 

If the most interesting and important of the older 
landmarks of this enchanting old place were named in 
order. Trinity Church might claim a preeminent place. 
Certainly it is the one upon which the eye first rests, for 
approaching Newport from almost any direction it 
rises in beauty to challenge the attention and interest 
of the traveller. As has been well said, " It is justly 



302 Narragansett Bay 

admired, for its proportions are good and its details 
unlike and far above anything to be found in the old 
New England meeting house." It suggests Wren, 
from whom its inspiration undoubtedly was drawn, 
and is one of the few edifices now standing in America 
that preserve, not only in exterior lines, but in interior 
furnishing and decoration, the spirit and form of the 
eighteenth century. The high pulpit and sounding 
board, the oak encased organ, adorned with crown 
and mitres, the antique pews, and all the minor details of 
furniture, speak eloquently of the days when Berkeley 
or Honeyman preached and governors and statesmen, 
merchants and fine dames, sat in the pews. In the old 
graveyard are many of the names that are inscribed in 
this book and many more that history has treasured. 
If one strays then between candle-lighting and cock- 
crow, he will perhaps discover a long procession of 
ghosts seeking among the habitations of the living the 
boundaries of their old estates. 

There one might encounter the familiar form of 
Abraham Redwood, gliding arm in arm with " Quaker 
Tom " Robinson, whose house on Washington Street 
has survived till the present day. He was a fine old 
man, but a Tory, and his house a refuge for Tories 
before the English occupation. Near by his residence 
was the Hunter house, where Colonel Wanton once 
lived. 

There goes the most eccentric old ghost that ever 
limped out into the light of the moon. He wears an 



Ghosts at Newport 303 

old rusty white beaver hat that has not been removed 
from his head, except in sleep, during the memory of 
any of his contemporaries. One wonders whether he 
wore it underground. He is Abiel Spenser, who was a 
cabinet-maker at the beginning of things, but after- 
wards took a store and gradually fell into the way of 
keeping drugs. He scarcely ever left his store, going as 
far as Thames Street not more than once or twice in a 
dozen years. Every one in town knew him as " Doctor." 
A real doctor of Abiel's generation was Enoch Hazard, 
of the old Hazard family of Kingstown. He was a bit of 
an autocrat, as old-school doctors assumed the rigrht to 
be, and ruled his patients as he pleased. 

There is Collins — Henry Collins — who gave for most 
public objects, and was particularly liberal in his con- 
tributions to both the Redwood library and the City 
Hall, but lost his own beautiful house because of his 
debts. 

Old Solomon Southwick gives Quaker Tom a wide 
berth, for he was the patriot editor of the Neiuport 
Mercury and scourged the British both before and 
after their sojourn in Newport. His house is on the 
corner of Walnut and Washington Streets, and is cele- 
brated partly because of a foolish story that credits it 
with being the repository for some of Kidd's treasure. 
Just who buried it no one can say, for the noted free- 
booter died on the gallows about sixty years before the 
foundations of the Southwick house were laid. 

Washington Street was the home of many of the old 



304 * Narragansett Bay 

worthies. At the north end of it is the site (hardly 
more) of old Fort Greene, where used to be a semicircu- 
lar water battery, and above it a system of earth-works. 
The first attempt at making a military defence at this 
point was in 1776, and there the active farmer-soldiers 
of the patriot army threw up a breast-work in a single 
night, and with the guns they planted there so annoyed 
the British ship of war Scarboi'ough that she was obliged 
to slip her cables and withdraw as rapidly as possible. 
The fort that was afterward built on that spot was 
superseded by Fort Adams. 

Not far from this place several prosperous Jews once 
had a spermaceti chandlery. These Hebrews organised 
the first large American business syndicate of which I 
have seen any account. The chandlers of Philadelphia, 
Providence, and Newport agreed that all crude sperma- 
ceti, wherever landed in the colonies, should be bought 
on joint account and divided according to a pro-rata 
agreement. More than half the product of the whale 
oil that came at that time into the colony was used at 
the Newport works. 

There were many not-to-be-forgotten men, important 
factors in the local life in their generation, though not 
of the wealthiest or greatest. Old Jonathan Nichols 
kept the White Horse Inn, and was a boniface of no 
small consideration. The sio-n that swunor over his 
door was painted by Halpin, who did a flourishing 
business among- his neiofhbours in trade. Whether he 
originated the ideas for the signs he painted no one 



Ghosts at Newport 305 

knows, but a sense of humour evidently animated who- 
ever was responsible for them. One woman stitched 
at nether o-arments under the allurintr legend of The 
Leather Breeches. An apothecary's shop was " The 
Golden Mortar," and a saloon " The Golden Calf." 
One firm of soap chandlers were known as " The Bunch 
of Grapes." 

On Thames Street, near New Lane, there was a 
popular place of refreshment called the British Coffee 
House. Abigail Stoneman, a strenuous businesswoman 
of the day, kept that and several other " publics," where 
"any civil and polite person " could by the " payment of 
a quarter of a dollar for each gentleman have the use of 
a sfood dancincr room, with music and liorhts." On 
Gravely Point, William Treley, a sailmaker, kept a 
shop which he called the Trysail. Thomas Greene 
kept the Roebuck, on Thames Street ; the Golden 
Eagle of John Bours was a place for dry-goods, and 
William Ladd's Golden Lion dealt in eoods that were 
not dry. 

The Decatur family, the most distinguished member 
of which was Stephen Decatur, Commodore in the 
young navy of the United States, were Newport peo- 
ple. The unfortunate duel with Commodore Barron, 
in which Decatur lost his life, made a great stir 
throughout the United States, the interest being hardly 
less than that which the celebrated Burr-Hamilton duel 
had aroused. The first of the Decatur family to come to 
America was the Commodore's grandfather, a Genoese. 



3o6 Narragansett Bay 

I have spoken elsewhere of the Newpoi^t Mercury as 
a patriot journal, edited and owned by Solomon South- 
wick. That and the Rhode Island Gazette were both 
founded by James Franklin, about 1757, when he was 
driven out of Boston for his radical opinions and 
found a refuQ^e in the common haven for all radicals. 

For many years Newport numbered among her 
best and most influential citizens a number of Hebrews 
whose eenesis and exodus have both seemed involved 
in considerable mystery. To-day nothing remains to 
suggest them but a beautiful little burial ground that 
has inspired many speculations in prose and at least 
one poem, that of Longfellow, entitled "The Jewish 
Cemetery at Newport." Those Jewish merchants have 
left a reputation for honest dealing, for clean living, 
and for unstinted public service, so that to-day no 
sketch of Newport could be written that did not 
include them. 

From a document quoted by the Rev. Edward Peter- 
son we get some light upon the origin of the Newport 
Jews. "In the spring of 1658 Mordecai Campannall, 
Moses Packeckoe, Levi and others, in all fifteen fami- 
lies, arrived in Newport from Holland. They brought 
with them the three first degrees of Masonry, and 
worked them in the house of Campannall, and con- 
tinued to do, they and their successors, to the year 
1742." George Champlin Mason in his Reininiscences 
of Newport says that "the Jews, who did so much to 
promote the interest of Newport, were seen here as 



Ghosts at Newport 307 

early as 1677, or perhaps earlier. At that time they 
bought a piece of ground for a burial place." 

From the first these aliens enjoyed the same protec- 
tion and favour under Rhode Island laws as were 
enjoyed by other colonists. At one time indeed a 
clause which had been added to the naturalisation 
laws of the colony and which discriminated in favour 
of Christians, was brought up to defeat the petition of 
Aaron Lopez and Isaac Elizar, Portuguese Jews, to be 
admitted to the rights of citizenship. The clause had 
been a dead letter up to that time (1762) and was 
soon afterward repealed. There was, among the older 
citizens of Hebrew blood, one Jacob Rodriguez Rivera, 
whose daughter Aaron Lopez married. Others of that 
family came from Portugal and engaged in business, 
seldom meddling with politics, but known for their 
probity and their liberality. Lopez and Jacob Joseph 
were among the founders of the Redwood library and 
Rivera was a stockholder. Mason quotes the following 
notice of marriage, published in a New York paper in 
October, 1759: 

Mr. Moses Lopez, a gentleman of very large fortune, from the 
West Indies, to Miss Maria Lopez, daughter of Mr. Aaron Lopez. 

Her Beauty, Innocence, and Truth 

Unite to bless the happy Youth, 

And in return we too shall find 

Sound Judgment, Reason, Sense refined 

In him are happily Combined: 

Which, with ^5000 a year. 

Are well bestowed upon the fair. 



3o8 Narragansett Bay 

This was copied by a Newport paper, which was called 
upon to contradict it in its next number. 

The Pollocks were among the prominent Hebrew 
families of the place, as were also the Judahs, Meyers, 
Seixas, Isaacs, Hays, and a host besides. A little 
after the middle of the eighteenth century there 
were sixty families or more and a synagogue was 
established. 

Preeminent among all these names of men who, even 
while they mingled with their Gentile neighbours, were 
isolated as an alien clan, stands that of Touro, Isaac 
Touro, priest of the Congregation, came here in 1 760, and 
when the war commenced went to Jamaica. Abraham 
Touro, son of the preceding, accompanied his uncle and 
brother Judah to Boston and engaged in business there. 
At his death, which occurred in his forty-ninth year, it was 
found that he had bequeathed to various Newport and 
Rhode Island institutions a considerable part of his 
fortune. Judah Touro became very wealthy and during 
his residence in Newport gave liberally of his means to 
every worthy object. Moses Hays, the uncle of the 
Touros, who took them with him to Boston, was a Mason 
of exalted rank. He was appointed under the Scottish 
Rite as " Deputy Inspector General for America," and 
afterwards for four years held the office of Grand 
Master of the Massachusetts Grand Lodge. 

Scattered and gone, these Hebrew merchants may 
fitly be numbered among the ghosts of Newport. We 
stand before the beautiful gate of their cemetery, with 



Ghosts at Newport 309 

its inverted torches upon either hand, and repeat Long- 
fellow's lines : 

The trees are white with dust, that o'er their sleep 
Wave their broad curtains in the south wind's breath, 

While underneath such leafy tents they keep 
The long, mysterious exodus of death. 



Chapter XI 
Along Shore on Aquidneck 

IT is difficuh to determine which is the obverse and 
which is the reverse side of Newport, if we may 
be permitted to borrow terms from the numisma- 
tologists. To enjoy the most celebrated and noteworthy 
feature of modern Newport it is necessary to cross to 
the ocean side, where the cliffs, broken, ragged, un- 
conquered yet, if not in the aeons to come unconquer 
able, confront the untirinor waves of the Atlantic. From 
Easton's Beach, where the tempered surf rolls in green 
and red for the delectation of the unseparated multitude, 
there is a distant view of unmargined sea, beyond 
Sachuest and Saconnet. In the centre of the picture 
stands Cormorant Rock and the breeze that sweeps in 
from beyond it is as sparkling and exhilarating as wine, 
but with never a hint of a headache to follow, and a 
merry crowd throng the space between the pavilions 
and the water's edge. 

Stretching to the left of this beach there is a rocky shore, 
terminating in a point where lie the chaotic evidences 
of a war of the Titans, but the way to the mansions of the 

elect lies along the cliffs to the right, As every one 

310 



Along Shore on Aquidneck 313 

has walked upon the Newport Cliffs, so almost every 
one has written about them, yet no one ever has or 
ever will put upon paper a satisfying description of the 
wild beauty of chasms and grottos, of piled-up boul- 
ders and storm-beaten headlands, against which the sea 
rolls up in threatening billows to break and fall seething 
and eddying back, gnashing their white teeth. Our won- 
der at the majestic natural beauty of this broken rock- 
wall, and the turbulent waters that smite it ceaselessly, 
is not lessened by the fact that they are unspoiled, 
unmarred even, by the utmost efforts of man to groom 
and furbish the face of nature. 

The most desirable locality upon the cliffs, is, to my 
thinking, that bold cape known as Coggeshall's Ledge. 
South-easterly from here the prospect is limitless, but 
directly south it is picturesquely broken by a brace of 
small islands, not more than a few acres in extent. A 
little way beyond the ledge lies the Spouting Rock, that 
in storms has been wont to send a voluminous jet of 
water, whale-like, into the air. A deep bay sub-divided 
into smaller coves, indents the southern side of Brenton's 
Neck, and affords another of the delightful beaches, 
this time an exclusive pleasure-ground for the favoured 
of fortune. Everywhere along the cliffs the walk is 
free to all, secured to the public by a State law. It 
passes in succession through a chain of the most palatial 
seaside parks in the world. Some years ago it was the 
fashion to speak of " Newport Cottages," but no stretch 
of the imagination will make cottages of palaces. 



314 TsTarragansett Bay 

Twenty-five or thirty years past, when Charlotte Cush- 
man's house was pointed out as one of the attractions of 
the chff walk, and when a delightfully clever writer 
could say of these modern cliff dwellings that " for the 
season, $2000 is considered a moderate rental," New- 
port may have been a possible haven for " people of 
moderate means," but to-day only immoderate means 
may compass a home in that favoured spot. 

The sweep of lawns that have been top dressed with 
dollars before they consented to assume such a velvety 
verdance, come down to the very path, and flowers, 
grown with all the exquisite precision that professional 
pride demands, make a picture not easily forgotten. 

To name those who have built palaces along the 
ClifY Walk would be to enumerate many of the leaders 
in the social or business world in America, a task cer- 
tainly not demanded by the plan of this book. Had 
they been gathered with the Wantons, the Coddingtons, 
the Touros or the Brentons, from one to two centuries 
ago, we might perhaps find concerning them some 
legend with which the world to-day is not perfectly 
familiar. 

A mile or two north-east of Newport is " Tonomy 
Hill," the name a lazy corruption of Miantonimo. It 
is clearly visible from Mount Hope and is the highest 
point of land in the southern part of Aquidneck. There 
are still, near the top, remains of the fortifications that 
were occupied in turn by the soldiers of both the oppo- 
nents in the Revolutionary struggle. 



Along Shore on Aquidneck 315 

Quaker Hill, further north, and Slate Hill, lying be- 
tween them about midway, are other elevations that are 
interesting principally because of their association with 
military movements. We are following the retreat of 
Sullivan and his forces, before the battle of Tiverton 
Heights, and we can trace step by step the dogged 
withdrawal of that plucky band that had, without the 
promised French support, bearded the British garrison 
at Newport. 

Our excursion is nearly finished. We have come 
back to the second oldest town in Rhode Island, where 
the Antinomian exiles made their first settlement after 
leaving Providence. Here it was that Coggeshall 
stayed with the majority of his fellows ; hence Codding- 
ton and the more adventurous went forth upon a wiser 
second thought to fix upon a more advantageous local- 
ity. The foresight that prompted them to settle New- 
port seems to-day so evident that we do not credit them 
with more than ordinary perspicacity. 

From the old Portsmouth records we glean some 
curious facts illustrative of the simple life of the early 
settlers and the transcription of a few entries may not 
be uninterestingf. 

"Aug. 21^.' 1654. At a meeting of the inhabitants of 
Portsmouth it is voated that Assamequin shall have his 
Coate payed him forthwith for his rent of the medows 
on the maine land on the North side of Roade Island." 
Following this, on the same date was written : " It is 
voated and concluded that all the affayers of Generall 



3i6 Narragansett Bay- 

Court shalbe transacted by a committee of six men of 
each towne Chosen to that end ; except elextion." We 
cannot but be glad that " elextion" was excepted if only 
for the sake of the spelling. 

Aeain we read : " It is ordered that this committee, 
[Wm. Baulston, John Roome, Richard Bordin, Thomas 
Cornell Senior, John Briggs, and William Hall] are 
authorized to meete at Warwick with the rest of ye 
towne's committees at the day nuport neighbers shall 
appoint ; with as full power as if the towne were present 
etc." There is one very suggestive entry that leads us 
to suspect that scolding wives were not absolutely un- 
known in Portsmouth. "It is ordered that a doppinge 
stoole shalbe made in this towne and sett at the water 
side by the po — de (Pond ?)." The doppinge stoole 
was no other than that well-known institution of old, 
the ducking stool, a rude chair affixed to the end of a 
pole or plank and balanced over the water. In it some 
offender against domestic peace, generally a woman with 
an ungovernable tongue, was securely tied and then 
" ducked." 

Under date of June 23, 1654, we read that "At 
a towns meeting it is voated for this towne to joyne with 
Newport in the purchase of Cunnuniquut Hand — and 
Dutch Island with it." I have referred to the fact that 
upon some of the old charts Dutch Island was spelled 
Duck Island. Here is a still older authority for the 
present name. 

Sometimes we catch a glimpse of a dilemma out of 



Along Shore on Aquidneck 3 1 7 

which the fathers of the settlement found it hard to crawl, 
as when John Mott, being infirm and a charge upon the 
community, is offered the benefit of a sea voyage pro- 
vided several things do not interfere with the plan. 
" It is agreed that the towne wilbee at the Charge to 
pay ould John motts passage to the Barbades Hand and 






ijC!r;r'~n~'"nTTrj^|^ ■ *^ 



THE NORTH END OF AQUIDNECK, COAL PIER, AND BREAKERS 

back againe, if he cannot be received there, if he Hue 
(live) to it, if the shippe owners will carry him." We 
cannot help feeling curious to know whether old John 
after all got his passage to the Barbadoes, whether he 
lived to get there, or whether he returned to again 
puzzle the careful heads of the elders, and what may 
have been the matter with old John Mott. 

Somehow those two last-quoted records in the Ports- 



3i8 Narragansett Bay 

mouth statute books seem rich with "local colour" and 
bring us wondrous near the homely and prosaic cares 
that beset the daily lives of the Portsmouth exiles. 

Whenever it was possible upon the shores of Aquid- 
neck, as elsewhere along the borders of Narragansett 
Bay, shipyards were established and the abundant 
timber of the country converted into vessels that soon 
made a world-wide reputation for their sailing qualities. 
The east shore of the bay vied with the west shore in 
this respect. It was not for nothing that the British 
were at such pains to invest Newport and employ a 
fleet to patrol the lower waters of Narragansett. It 
was well understood in the old world that here was 
the very centre, the cradle, of the naval strength of the 
colonies. Here was the home of the privateers, the 
chief ship-yard of the continent. There could be no 
other reason given for the pains with which the army 
and navy of King George conspired to seize and to oc- 
cupy a town otherwise so unimportant from a strategic 
point of view. 

One of the celebrated Wanton family was a ship- 
builder at Tiverton, divided only by a narrow strait 
from the upper end of Aquidneck. Another famous 
designer of vessels, at a later day, was Captain James 
Aldrich, who was born at Westerly in 1 786 and died 
at Tower Hill in 1832. To him is credited the build- 
ing of the first three-masted schooner that was ever 
sailed, and he is also said to have made practicable, if 
he did not invent, the modern centreboard boat. 



Along Shore on Aquidneck 319 

It seems a natural sequence to the long line of marine 
architects that have made Narragansett Bay the scene 
of their labours, that the Herreshoff family at Bristol 
should be in our time supporting Rhode Island's cher- 
ished reputation by building invincible cup defenders. 

As elsewhere in the world, the transition from sailing 
craft to steam-vessels made a serious impression upon 
the old-time shipyards. A great revolution followed 
the appearance of "Fulton's Teapot" and a great in- 
dustry began then to decline. 

An amusinor anecdote is told in connection with the 
voyage of the Clei^emont from New York to Providence. 
Owing to some slight accident to her machinery, or 
perhaps to a shortage of fuel, the boat stopped at 
Point Judith, and the inhabitants, thinking that surely 
a wreck had come ashore, flocked to the scene. 
As they approached they discovered what to them were 
indubitable signs that the supposed wreck was on fire. 
Then, to their astonishment she sailed away without a 
rag of canvas, yet evidently under control and belching 
fire and smoke as she went. 

Mr. Joseph P. Hazard, writing from Peacedale in 
1884 to the Narragansett Historical Register, says 
that the first line of steamers that ran between New 
York, Newport, and Providence started in 1823. One 
of the boats so employed was the Fnltoji, the other the 
Coniiectictit — according to Mr. Hazard's memory. The 
price of a passage from Providence to New York was 
ten dollars, and nine dollars from Newport. The general 



320 Narragansett Bay 

impression seemed to prevail that these steamboats 
were unsafe and wlioever took passage on one took his 
Hfe in his hands. These packets made the passage 
from one end of the hne to the other in an average 
time of three or four days, though sixteen hours was 
the minimum time recorded. 

The accommodations were of the most primitive 
kind. There were berths, a dozen or so, in the hold, 
and a passenger must carry whatever his comfort 
required. About 1827 the first Sound steamer fur- 
nished with state-rooms made a ereat sensation. Her 
name was the Benjamin Franklin and her captain, 
Joseph Comstock. He and his son, we are told, com- 
manded Sound steamers as late as 1870. 

As the old order changes we are apt to forget how 
very few years will bridge the interval between our own 
day and what we are fond of referring to as the historic 
past. A few years more and— who knows — our own 
time and story may be food for the antiquary, and 
furnish the source of numberless romantic traditions. 



Chapter XII 
Old Haunts in East Greenwich and Wickford 

IN the foregoing chapters the reader has not been 
personally conducted in a continuous circuit of 
the great bay. It has seemed better to tell of the 
natural charm and the historic and legendary interest 
of Narragansett in topical chapters, and in pursuance 
of this plan the description of East Greenwich and its 
neighbourhood, which, had this been a guide-book, 
would have come after Warwick in consecutive order, 
has been reserved for the closing pages of the book. 

For many years a jealousy existed between Warwick 
and East Greenwich, the inhabitants of each village 
contending warmly for the honour and profit of pro- 
viding the seat of government for Kent County. That 
dispute was finally settled in favour of the latter place, 
and to-day one is surprised to learn that there could 
ever have been a contention, the disproportion of the 
rivals in size and importance being so evident. 

That is a delightful old-fashioned corner where the 
main street of East Greenwich crosses the dividing line 
between two townships. The line is marked by Di- 
vision Street, which runs westward from the bay, with 

21 



322 Narragansett Bay 

Warwick township upon the north and East Greenwich 
at the south of it. The main street, which is used 
throughout its length by the electric cars of the sub- 
urban system, is older than any white man's tradition of 
Narragansett Bay, for it here follows the ancient Pequot 
trail, over which warlike tribes of red men passed in 
unreckoned succession before Verrazani's keel had 



EAST GREENWICH HARBOUR 



found the channels between Saconnet and Point Ju- 
dith. At the intersection of these two principal thor- 
oughfares stands a group of charmingly sedate old 
houses and venerable trees. 

This crossing of the ways is evidently the nucleus of 
whatever is oldest and historically most interesting in 
East Greenwich ; within a few blocks in any direction 
from this point there are a number of houses that sug- 



East Greenwich and Wickford 323 

gest colonial or early Continental occupancy, and not a 
few actually antedate the time when Generals Greene, 
Sullivan, Lafayette, and a score of noted Revolutionary 
soldiers, were familiar figures in East Greenwich streets. 
Unlike most American villages, this one shows little 
tendency to change the simple and generous architec- 
tural fashions of a conservative past for modern rain- 
bow eclecticism. In blessed contrast to newer towns, 
or old towns that would be thought progressive, there 
is here a restful prevalence of cool, white walls, and 
green blinds ; while brass knockers, as resplendent as 
the metal of a man-of-war, adorn not a few of the doors, 
and form a series of congruous " remarques " to the 
broad simplicity of Rhode Island gables. 

A short distance south of the corners stands a hand- 
some white court house, surmounted by a cupola and 
weather-vane, and occupying the site of an older build- 
ing formerly devoted to the same purpose. Upon the 
opposite side of the way, not far from the court house, 
the principal hotel of the place has above its entrance a 
large wooden bunch of grapes, that once formed the 
sign of the village tavern. The dwelling that occupies 
the corner of Marlborough and Queen Streets, nearer 
the water front, was formerly the county jail. South- 
west of the crossing, upon the first plateau above the 
court house, stands the old Academy, to which genera- 
tions of youth from the surrounding country have 
flocked ; and directly south of that still stands the old 
Quaker Meeting-house, though not now used for re- 



324 Narragansett Bay 

ligious services. Several streets starting westward from 
the main street are mere courts or closes, level for a 
block and then terminating abruptly in flights of stairs, 
by which the height of the next terrace is reached. 
This feature gives a peculiarly foreign air to the 
neighbourhood. 

The whole atmosphere of East Greenwich is old- 
fashioned and restful. Its tone is quiet, its temper 
conservative. Business languishes ; a few of the more 
energetic citizens find a daily outlet for their activity in 
Providence, a dozen miles away, and the remainder live 
in semi-rural quiet as their fathers lived before them. 

As an antithesis to the habitual aspect of the place, 
there are occasional incursions of modern trivolity, 
when a wave of latter-day fashion rolls up Narragansett 
and its very crest breaks in Cowesett Bay. At times 
the basin is filled with a concourse of yachts, as when 
the New York Yacht Club has made this its rendez- 
vous, upon the occasion of the annual cruise. 

East Greenwich was settled in 1677, and shortly 
afterwards incorporated. In the following year its 
name was changed to Dedford, but this cognomen did 
not meet with popular favour and the old one was 
finally restored. The change of name was due to the 
King's assumption of the title to the Narragansett 
country, under the name of King's Province, many 
place names at that time being dropped and others 
substituted. North Kingstown then became Rochester, 
and Westerly, Haversham. Kent County was set off 



East Greenwich and Wickford 325 

from Providence in i 750, and East Greenwich was then 
made the county-seat. In colonial history its record is 
not a remarkable one, but during the Revolution it 
became very important to the Continental cause, be- 
cause it was the most southerly town of any size in 
Rhode Island that was not surrendered to the British 
when they held possession of the lower bay. Here 
the then Governor of the State resided and the 
military leaders of the time met in council with the civil 
authorities. 

The patriotic sentiment of the inhabitants of East 
Greenwich and the neio-hbourinof towns found ex- 
pression in a military organisation called the Kentish 
Guards, which came into being in the year 1774, and is 
still in existence. The enrolment of the Guards was 
anticipatory of the struggle which then seemed inevita- 
ble between Great Britain and her American colonies, 
and its first actual military service was with the "em- 
battled farmers " of Concord and Lexington. A later 
service rendered by the Guards to the State was during 
Dorr's Rebellion in 1842, and in 1861 this historic body 
was again called into action as company H of the First 
Rhode Island regiment. 

The Pawtuxet Rangfers and the Kentish Guards were 
created by act of the General Assembly in the same 
year, the latter including among its members General 
James Mitchell Varnum, General Nathaniel Greene, 
Colonel Christopher Greene, and other well-known sol- 
diers of the Continental army. The Guards belonged 



326 Narragansett Bay 

to the so-called " Army of Observation," commissioned 
to serve in Rhode Island and neio^hbourino- colonies. 
This army was subsequently divided into three regi- 
ments, and formed a brigade over which General 
Greene was placed in command. 

It has been afifirmed that the Kentish Guards fur- 
nished more officers of importance in the Revolutionary 
Army than any other organisation of equal size in the 
country. Whether or not this be true, there is evidence 
of a very active and efficient participation in the Revo- 
lution on the part of the men of Kent. At their hands 
Captain Wallace, of the British Navy, met with a most 
determined resistance when he attempted to extend his 
notorious depredations into the neighbourhood of Cow- 
esett Bay. His effort to treat East Greenwich as 
he had treated Bristol, Warren, and many another un- 
protected town was met by such opposition that he 
was fain to retreat. The Guards erected a fort, which 
they called Fort Daniel, about half-way between East 
Greenwich and Chipinoxet, nearly opposite Long Point. 
The cannon from this fort were taken to West Point 
after the war. There is now nothing left to mark the 
site of this defence. 

The most celebrated of the sons of East Greenwich 
was General Nathaniel Greene, who stood next to 
Washington in ability and authority during the War 
for Independence, and who enjoyed in so marked a 
a degree the confidence and affection of the Commander- 
in-chief. He was born at Pottowomut, not two miles 



East Greenwich and Wickford 329 

from the heart of East Greenwich, in the year 1 742, 
and sprang, as so many fighting men of Rhode Island 
have done, from a Quaker family. He worked in his 
youth in the forge that his father owned, at Coventry, 
where the old Greene House is still preserved, though re- 
modelled out of all semblance to its former appearance, 
while of the iorcre nothing is left, 

I think that the most interesting- dwelline-house in 
Kent County, and second to none in Rhode Island, is 
the so-called Governor Greene House, that stands on 
the Warwick side of Division Street, in East Green- 
wich, about half a mile east of the main street. The 
house is a development from one built in 1684 or 1685 
by Samuel Gorton, Jr,, the son of the Warwick Moses who 
led the third exodus of exiles from Massachusetts to a 
settlement upon the shores of Narragansett, Upon the 
original building of Gorton additions have been made 
by successive generations of occupants, the result being 
a large and rambling, old-fashioned mansion, unpre- 
tentious, yet attractive and home-like, set in a landscape 
of peculiar beauty and replete with associations of his- 
toric interest. The older part of the house is marked 
by a large, stone chimney, which is about the centre of 
the present building, though originally upon the west 
side of the dwelling, and half out-of-doors. This chim- 
ney was enclosed by an addition which itself is not by 
any means modern. 

The main entrance to the house is upon the south 
side and is shaded by a row of ancient trees, A large 



33^ Narragansett Bay 

and handsome brass knocker at the front door gives 
promise of treasures within doors, and this assurance is 
amply justified by the interior arrangement and furnish- 
ing of the house. At the left of the entrance is a re- 
ception room, which contains a portrait of Governor 
William Greene and not a few articles of furniture that 
date from colonial times. This apartment overlooks 
the valley to the westward and the window from which 
that enchanting view is obtained is still known as 
Franklin's window for it was here when a visitor at the 
Greene mansion that the greatest of early American 
philosophers loved to sit. On the opposite side of the 
entry hall a mammoth fireplace opens into the ancient 
chimney — a fireplace so large that a man or woman of 
average height can walk erect into it and look upward 
to the clear sky above. The andirons are of brass and as 
tall as a ten-year old child. Above the fireplace, under 
the shelf of the mantel hangs a small bronze medallion 
portrait of Franklin, which Poor Richard himself is said 
to have placed there. 

" The venerable aspect of the place," says Mr. O. P. 
Fuller, in his History of Warwick, " has been well 
preserved in such details as low ceilings, figured por- 
celain tiles, etc." Of old furniture, such as would delight 
the heart of any aesthetic housekeeper, there is through- 
out the house a goodly store ; in fact almost every room 
is a museum of treasures that have been accumulating 
since early colonial times. There are unique mahogany 
" high boys " with drawers in the lower part and cup- 




o « 



z ?. 



East Greenwich and Wickford 333 

boards above, of unusual patterns and unusual beauty ; 
wine coolers, desks, chairs, four-posters, rare china, pic- 
tures and bric-a-brac, things that must arouse the covet- 
ousness of every collector, but which are jealously 
guarded as relics of an historic past. 

The well-curb, enclosed in lattice-work, standing at 
the south side of the house, was built in 1 794 and is 
surmounted by a gilded weather-cock, but the barn and 
outbuildings belonging to the premises are of modern 
construction. 

The place was the i 7th lot in what was known as 
the Cowesett purchase, at the time of the first settle- 
ment of this shore by the whites. It was purchased 
from Samuel Gorton in 1718 by Samuel Greene, who 
was a son of Deputy-Governor John Greene, and the 
husband of Gorton's niece. It has been kept so far 
intact that although almost within the limits of East 
Greenwich village there are still three hundred acres 
of the original lot preserved with the house, and dur- 
ing the whole of its history but one deed of purchase, 
I am told, has been made since the property was 
acquired from the Indians. 

Samuel Greene died in 1 720 and was succeeded by his 
son William, who was Deputy-Governor of the colony 
from J uly i 740 to May i 743, and was afterwards Governor 
from 1743 to 1758, dying in office during the latter year. 

The house was enlarged by William Greene, Jr., in 
[758, in view of his then approaching marriage. Gen- 
eral Nathaniel Greene was also married here, where he 



334 Narragansett Bay 

first met Miss Catherine Littlefield, his future bride. 
The wedding ceremony was performed by Elder Gor- 
ton, on July 20th, 1774. 

William Greene, Jr., was elected to the office of 
Chief Justice in Rhode Island in 1777, and in the fol- 
lowing year was chosen to fill the gubernatorial chair, 
holding this office for eight subsequent years. The 
south-west room of the house was his council-room, 
where, with the officers of the State and such distin- 
guished military advisers as Sullivan, Greene, Lafayette, 
Rochambeau, and their associates, he discussed meas- 
ures of public policy and laid plans for co-operation 
with Washington and the Continental army. 

On the wall of the council-room used to hanor an 
engraved portrait of General Greene, presented by La- 
fayette to Mrs. Shaw, Greene's daughter. It bore the 
inscription, " To dear Mrs. Shaw from her father's com- 
panion in arms and most intimate friend, Lafayette." 
Peale's portrait of General Greene, from the Hon. 
William Bingham's collection, adorned the opposite 
wall. There are in the old house many interesting 
mementoes of Washington, Franklin, Lafayette, and 
other notable men of their day. 

The Hon. Ray Greene, member of the Senate of the 
United States in 1799, '^^'^.s Lieutenant-Governor dur- 
ing Governor Burnside's administration, and was the 
last one of the Greene name to occupy the old mansion. 
It afterwards passed by inheritance through a female 
heir to another branch of the family. 



East Greenwich and Wickford 335 

At the rear of the house, at some httle distance to 
the north, the old family burial ground, surrounded by 
four walls of tall evergreen trees, holds in mortuary 
remembrance the high standing and many excellencies 
of the distinguished family who in their time made the 
old house one of the most important social and political 
centres in the State. 

General Varnum, one of the familiar guests at the 
Greene mansion in its period of greatest importance, 
was also a resident of East Greenwich, where his house 
is still standing. 

The Arnolds, who were almost if not quite as much 
in evidence as the Greenes, were a family of great 
social and commercial interests and wide influence. 
They were largely engaged in trade with the West In- 
dies, Surinam, and the Spanish main. Colonel William 
Arnold was the proprietor of the Bunch of Grapes, the 
old inn that stood upon the site of the Updike House. 

Many of the colonial merchants of Kent County, in 
common with those of other trade centres in Rhode 
Island, became interested in privateering, and spent 
large sums of money in building and equipping those 
irregular cruisers that were the terror of British ship- 
ping during the War for Independence. Benjamin 
Greene Fry, in a geneological record of the Fry family, 
tells of a privateering ancestor of his, who fitted out a 
little schooner of fifty tons, and with it captured a large 
English vessel loaded with dry-goods. The English 
captain " actually shed tears, and remarked, had he been 



2>2>^ 



Narragansett Bay 



captured by a respectable force he could have borne it 

with more fortitude, but to be captured by a d d 

old squaw in a hog-trough was more than he could 
endure." 

One of the more notable men of this place at a later 
day was the historian George Washington Greene, 







THE WINDMILL HOUSE, ONCE THE RESIDENCE OF PROFESSOR GEO. W. GREENE 

who was born in East Greenwich in 1811, and died 
here seventy-two years later. He was a grandson of 
General Nathaniel Greene, and has been widely known 
as the author of a biography of his distinguished an- 
cestor. For many years his works on general history 
made his name a familiar one to a generation of stu- 
dents whose children are now more familiar with John 



East Greenwich and Wickford c^sy 

Fiske and his contemporaries. In 1872 Mr. Greene 
was appointed non-resident Professor of American His- 
tory at CorneU University. During the prime of his 
life he numbered among his friends most of the fore- 
most literary people of the day. 

Longfellow was his intimate, and an evidence of their 
friendship is still to be seen in the odd octagonal tower 
attached to the house that was Professor Greene's home, 
on Division Street. That tower was originally a wind- 
mill and belonged to Longfellow. It occupied a lot to 
the east of the one owned by Greene and was presented 
by the poet to his friend and by him moved to the 
position it now occupies. 

The region about Cowesett Bay and North Kings- 
town was once the scene of a religious fraud or delusion, 
as singular as any that is recorded. 

Jemima Wilkinson, an ambitious and unscrupulous 
woman, who flourished about the middle of the eight- 
eenth century, made East Greenwich the chief scene of 
her activity, and found here a crowd of credulous fol- 
lowers, before whom she posed as an incarnation of 
the Divine personality. 

Born in Cumberland County in 1751, the eighth of 
twelve children, Jemima passed her early years upon 
her father's farm, growing up to be as selfish and self- 
willed a baggage as ever provoked a hard-working 
parent. She is said to have shown an early tendency 
to deceit and lawlessness. Left motherless at an early 
age, she soon showed the lack of a restraining hand 



338 Narragansett Bay 

and became a leader among the wilder spirits of the 
neighbourhood. Her early developed beauty, vivacity, 
and self-will made her the admiration of the lads and 
the despair of all the lasses in her little world, till about 
the time that she was leaving her teens, when suddenly 
she professed to have experienced a change of heart 
and renounced the frivolities to which she had been so 
eager a devotee. 

Following this startling conversion came the news 
that Jemima was seriously ill, of a malady which baffled 
the simple medical skill of that day and set all the old 
wives agog. The disease culminated in a state of ap- 
parent unconsciousness, from which the patient did 
not recover for several days, when without warning or 
preface she arose, professing sudden and complete 
restoration to health. All this seemed strange enough 
to the watchers who surrounded the bed of the Q-'irl 
who was supposed to be at the very door of death ; 
but stranger revelations were to follow. Jemima Wil- 
kinson, they were informed, no longer lived. She was 
dead and her spirit had departed, — but the reincarnated 
spirit of the Saviour of Mankind animated her restored 
body. This blasphemous assumption was coupled with 
the statement that in this form He would dwell 
upon earth and reign a thousand years, the body He 
had chosen for his habitation to be at the end of that 
time translated, without corruption. 

The first opposition to the claim made by Jemima 
Wilkinson came from her own family, and the neigh- 



East Greenwich and Wickford 339 

bourhood was not slow to give expression to its 
dissent ; but the Universal Friend, as she styled her- 
self, after a time succeeded, as all religious imposters 
have done since history was born, in gathering about 
her a few devoted dupes, people not mad enough to 
be confined for lunacy, nor sane enough to form just 
opinions. 

Public meetings followed in course of time, and here 
the natural gifts of the prophetess began to assert them- 
selves. To her great beauty was added singular grace 
and charm of manner, a musical voice, and a persuasive 
eloquence that seems to have been well-nigh irresistible. 

There appears but little doubt that the Wilkinson 
woman's career, which lasted many years, was one of 
conscious fraud, for the chicanery and subterfuges 
which she employed in working her pretended miracles 
preclude the theory that she was self-deceived. Her 
moral character was notoriously bad, and at one time 
a robbery of public money was traced to her, but so 
strong was her influence that she escaped punishment. 

Among her most devoted followers was Judge Wil- 
liam Potter of South Kingstown, who built a new winof 
upon his house for her use when she was in that neigh- 
bourhood. Mrs. Potter is said not to have been a 
believer in the claims of the Universal Friend, and 
probably did not appreciate an intimacy that seemed at 
least equivocal. In Jemima's state journeys from town 
to town she sat upon a white horse and Judge Potter 
rode next to her sacred person. 



340 Narragansett Bay 

Upon the death of the Judge's daughter she gathered 
a large concourse of people before whom she pretended 
to raise the girl to life, but, finding no opportunity to 
carry out the deception, she ascribed her failure to a 
lack of faith on the part of her audience. The same 
excuse served when several thousand persons, who had 
gathered to witness her advertised feat of walking upon 
the water of Narragansett Bay, remained to scoff at 
her inability to keep her promise. 

On one occasion, while addressing an audience, she 
suddenly paused and said : " There is one here who 
will never see the light of another day." There was 
great excitement and even consternation at this state- 
ment, and it was not allayed when, upon the night fol- 
lowinor a neofro who had been amono- her hearers died 
in an agony which suggested poisoning. 

When she announced that she would publicly raise to 
life a follower who was supposed to have been dead for 
four days, a large concourse of people gathered to wit- 
ness the miracle. Unfortunately for Jemima's pre- 
tensions, a skeptical military officer, who was present 
proposed to run the corpse through with his sword to 
insure against mistakes. He pricked the supposed 
dead man so sharply that the coffin was vacated before 
Jemima could take any hand in the affair and the 
miracle exploded prematurely. The sight of a figure 
arrayed in a shroud, scrambling out of the building with 
an eager swordsman in pursuit, roused the edified con- 
gregation to wild enthusiasm. 



East Greenwich and Wickford 341 

Several transactions which would not bear close in- 
vestigation caused Jemima to leave Rhode Island for 
a time, and she took herself and her pretensions to 
Pennsylvania, where she resided for several years, but 
finally returned and at last, having announced that she 
was going away, died of dropsy. The certainty that 
she was dead alone destroyed the foolish faith of her 
followers. 

North Kingstown, lying south-east of East Greenwich, 
was frequently subjected during the Revolution to petty 
invasion by the enemy, and her inhabitants irritated by 
predatory incursions. It occupied, indeed, nearly the 
same position that the region about Tarrytown on the 
Hudson did, being a sort of neutral territory. The 
Newtown Rangers, like the military companies referred 
to above, was formed to meet local conditions of peril 
and was organised in 1777, by George Waite Babcock, 
Joseph Taylor, John Slocum and Christopher Pierce. 
The number of men enlisted, exclusive of officers, did 
not exceed sixty-four. The Greenes, Phillips, Barton 
and other prominent citizens were active in all these 
affairs. 

The trolley that runs through East Greenwich and 
follows for part of its course the old Pequot trail, 
crosses the Potowomut River and runs through North 
Kingstown to the quiet and delightful old village of Wick- 
ford. Be it understood that the village to which this 
paragraph refers is that ancient, secluded, slow, and 
altogether pleasant repository for many traditions of 



342 Narragansett Bay 

past importance, that sits by the waters of one of the 
deep, ragged bays of the west shore, and wonders what 
has become of her lost commerce. Wickford Junction, 
the railroad station at which passengers on the New 
Haven Railroad change for Narrasfansett Pier and 
Newport, is another sort of a place, mainly interesting 
because it is upon the way to some other point. 

After the Revolution old Wickford enjoyed a pro- 
sperous commercial era. It sprang then from the en- 
forced idleness that was the result of British control, to 
a brief maritime importance, for a time rivalling Provi- 
dence and excellinor most Rhode Island towns in the 
activity of its shipyards. Although admirably situated 
as a shipping and distributing centre, its importance 
gradually waned, till long ago it became what it is to- 
day, a charming but isolated spot, with considerable 
reminiscent interest. It is a place for an artist or poet 
to dream in ; its old houses and quiet streets are full of 
what the novelists of to-day call " local colour," and 
its houses would many of them well reward the labours 
of the curio hunter. 

Not far north of Wickford, along the line of the 
trolley, is a place where we may appropriately close our 
itinerary. It is the spot where the first Englishman who 
built upon the shores of Narragansett Bay, erected a 
blockhouse for trading purposes, in 1639. Richard 
Smith was not a settler in the sense that Williams, 
Coddington, or Gorton were. He had no following, 
took no part in colony building, made no permanent 



East Greenwich and Wickford 



543 



impress upon the minds or lives of men of his own or 
any other time, but he built a house before Roger Wil- 
liams came to Providence, and popular tradition asserts 
that it is yet standing. 

Smith settled on Point Wharf Cove, and his first 




THE BABBITT FARMHOUSE, NEAR WICKFORD, THIS BUILDING IS SAID TO BE 
AN ENLARGEMENT OF RICHARD SMITH's BLOCKHOUSE 



neighbour is said to have been Williams, who soon sold 
out to him his holding, which included Rabbit Island. 
In 1656, Smith leased the land upon which Wickford 
was afterwards built. This territory, extending as 
far south as the Annaquatucket River, he soon after 



344 Narragansett Bay 

secured by a thousand-year lease, adding to it another 
tract on the north and east, known as Calve's Neck. 
His various leaseholds finally aggregated twenty-seven 
square miles. 

The trading-house built by Smith was afterward in- 
corporated in the building which has borne successively 
among others the names of Updyke, Congdon, and 
Babbitt. As the Babbitt farmhouse it is still pointed 
out to visitors to Wickford. 

At the time of Philip's war tradition tells that a 
band of settlers, inflamed with the smell of "villainous 
saltpeter" and blood, and perhaps somewhat exhiler- 
ated by a fluid then much valued by good New Eng- 
landers, arrived at Smith's blockhouse with Indian 
prisoners. Having tied these captives to chairs, the 
doughty men of Massachusetts further refreshed them- 
selves with some of the trader's private stock, and soon 
became delightfully mellow. It is well understood that 
to make a Puritan New Englander convivial something 
out of the ordinary was required, and we must believe 
that the potations of this particular company were long 
and deep, for a vein of rare pleasantry was developed 
among its members. Even in his mirth, however, the 
Puritan was not as other men, and there was a dreadful 
grimness in his pleasantry. It happened at last that 
one of the Indian fisfhters in the course of the carousal 
hilariously struck off his captive's head with his sword. 
As the gory ball rolled away it struck a tall clock in 
the corner and the sensitive timepiece, unable to con- 



East Greenwich and Wickford 345 

tain itself, struck one. The conchision of this charm- 
ing story, I regret to say, has long been lost. There is 
a similar vagueness concerning another Indian victim, 
who, trussed like a fowl, was roasted (again tradition is 
sponsor for the tale) in the great fireplace. 

Another cheerful legend of the Babbitt house is that 
of a woman who, preyed upon by a dreadful melancholy, 
hanged herself in the best bedroom. In times past 
there were more ghosts about the old blockhouse than 
could be numbered at any other spot in Rhode Island, 
but happily these are all laid, and the visitor at Bab- 
bitt's farm needs not fear that his rest will be disturbed 
by anything more dreadful than the early crowing of 
the cock that wakes the morn. 



Chapter XIII 
A Budcret of Leofends 

THERE are some curious stories told concerning 
certain swamps and other isolated places in 
the Narragansett Country. In North Kings- 
town witches abode, who held their unhallowed sab- 
baths in Hell Hollow and Kettle Hole. Then there 
was that startling apparition, near Indian Corner, of 
the negro boy who had in some unexplained way lost 
his head ; not as people are said to do when wool 
gathering, but by actual decapitation. The belated 
traveller who was unfortunate enough to encounter this 
shocking spectre told how it had seemed to be illumin- 
ated by a very unwholesome and suggestive blue flame, 
by the light of which its blind gropings and staggerings 
were quite visible. Just as it reached the crest of Pork 
Hill the fearful creature went off like a comet, with a 
sulphurous train of fire in its wake. 

To match the headless negro there used to be a 
headless Indian, or rather the skeleton of an Indian, 
who had an unfortunate habit of mislaying his head 
and then making life a burden to any one who chanced 
to find it. How this particular ghost was discovered to 

346 



A Budget of Legends 349 

have been an Indian I cannot say, but here is one of 
the stories told about him : 

One summer evening a road-mender, just about to 
pick up his tools and dinner pail, discovered a skull 
lyinor by the side of the road where he had been diL'"""ino-. 

" I wonder how I managed to throw that out with- 
out noticing it," he asked himself. Being interested in 
oddities, like many a more learned man, he wiped the 
skull off on a convenient portion of his leather breeches, 
and tucking it under his arm, trudged away towards 
home. His wife did not share his esthetic taste in 
curios, and when she met him at the door and dis- 
covered the nature of the burden he was carrying there 
was a fine scene. She dared him on his life to bring 
that nasty thing into her kitchen, and after one look 
into her determined face he promptly and wisely dis- 
claimed any intention of doing so. Instead, he stuck 
it upon a pole at the back of the house and left it there. 

It chanced to be a moonlight night. Just after mid- 
night, when all out-of-doors was bright as day, there 
was a great clatter under the road-mender's window% so 
that his wife looked out to see what was happening. 
There in the road stood the headless skeleton, in a 
great state of excitement, shaking his bones till they 
rattled like a waggon-load of castanets. The woman 
fell back from the window in a great fright, but her 
husband merely called out, " If you are looking for 
your head you will find it stuck on the pole at the back 
of the house." Following this direction the visitor 



350 Narragansett Bay 

secured his skull and, clapping it on as one would don 
a hat, he strode wrathfully down the road. Since that 
time, if local gossip is to be credited, the headless 
Indian has been frequently seen, standing guard over 
the buried members of his own race. 

Over on the end of Conanicut, just above the Beaver- 
tail, a strange adventure once befel Ben Gladding, a 
fisherman. Gladding had been busy all day mending 
his nets, and when the full August moon came up, he 
shouldered his clam-rake and basket and started for the 
cove nearly opposite Bonnet Neck. It was almost as 
light as day, and the silence of the shore was only 
broken by the lapping of the waves upon the pebbly 
beach ; an ideal night for clamming or for sentiment. 
As Ben worked his way down towards the point, his 
basket growing heavier and heavier, something woke 
in him that he did not understand. It was akin to 
poetry, but the fisherman could no more have put the 
first glimmering hint of it into words than a clam can 
spread its " crustaceous covering," as Halleck would 
say, and soar away into the empyrean. 

At last he stopped hacking away at the shingle with 
his clam-rake, and straightened himself up to rest. As 
he turned his eyes towards Jones's Ledge he saw a 
vision that made him rub them. A strange vessel, un- 
unlike any craft he had ever beheld, having a high 
stern, cross-yards upon her bowsprit, and sails curiously 
fashioned, came rapidly towards him. The oddest thing 
about this peculiar vessel was not her appearance, 



A Budget of Legends 351 

though that was odd enough, but the fact that she 
seemed to have come over a shoal where no vessel 
should have come, and was sailing swiftly right in the 
eye of what wind there was, with her yards square and 
her sails rap full. 

She passed within a biscuit toss of Ben, heading for 
the shore a little to the south of him, where he vainly 
expected to see her dashed to pieces ; but she crossed 
the land as easily as she had traversed the water, and 
the last he saw of her she was heading for Graves's 
Point. Ben afterwards swore that she had no lights, 
but in the moonshine he could clearly see the fiag that 
flew from her mainmast, spread out by the same mys- 
terious wind that filled her sails, and that flag was 
adorned with a skull and cross-bones. 

As every one knows, some old buccaneer, either the 
redoubtable Captain Kidd or some other, has a habit 
of taking nocturnal excursions in very much the fashion 
witnessed and described by honest Ben Gladding. 
Kidd's visitations have been particularly marked at 
points upon Long Island Sound. It is an open secret 
that he buried uncounted treasure and incidentally 
interred some all-too-confidine members of his crew to 
fjuard it, and more than one oreat house in Narraofan- 
sett is said to have harboured the pirate and profited 
by his adventures. 

At Indian Corner, near Slocumville, in North Kings- 
town, there is a rock from which blood was some- 
times seen to flow. Of course superstition furnished 



352 Narragansett Bay 

appropriate legends to account for the sanguinary foun- 
tain, but modern skepticism has suggested that perhaps 
the soil thereabouts contains considerable iron, and that 
iron when oxidised makes a red stain. Modern skeptic- 
ism, by the way, is a deadly foe to many an entertaining 
legend. There is at least a substratum of historic fact 
to support the superstructure of fable concerning Bloody 
Rock. Indian Corner takes its name from the battle 
once fought there between the red men and whites. A 
number of those slain were buried in the immediate 
vicinity of the rock and bones have not infrequently 
been found near that place. 

It is natural that the Narragansett Country should 
still preserve many traditions of the remarkable tribe 
from which its name is derived. With these tales are 
woven others in which the early white settlers fill the 
prominent roles. Such a story is that of Joshua Tefft, 
the renegade, who had fled from Massachusetts after 
the commission of a crime, and took refuge with the 
Narragansetts. War between the races was then in 
progress and in order to show the genuineness of his 
apostacy he stained his hands with a white man's blood, 
bringing to the Narragansett camp the scalp of a miller 
whom he had surprised and slain. It was commonly 
believed that Tefft had killed both his father and his 
mother. To this man was attributed the planning of 
the swamp fortress, or fortified camp, that for so long 
made the Narragansetts almost invulnerable against the 
attacks of the settlers. Being caught after the great 



A Budget of Legends 353 

swamp fight, the renegade was drawn and quartered. 
Shorn of power and bereft of their broad possessions 
after their subjection the Indians long preserved the 
shadow of old customs, clinging to what shreds and 
patches of traditional observance they had preserved. 
Around Charlestown, where a few descendants of Mi- 
antonomi's followers still linger, the tribal life seemed 
most tenacious. Here the powerless Sachems received 
gifts of peage and were crowned with bands of wam- 
pum by the chief men of the dwindling tribe. Mr. 
William Kenyon, once a resident of Charlestown, thus 
described an Indian coronation of which he was a 
witness. 

She (the Princess Esther) was elevated on a large rock, so that 
the people might see her. The council surrounded her. There 
were present about twenty Indian soldiers with guns. They marched 
her to the rock. The Indians nearest the royal blood, in presence 
of her councillors, put the crown on her head. It was made of 
cloth, covered with blue and white peage. When the crown was 
put on the soldiers fired a royal salute and huzzaed in the Indian 
tongue. The ceremony was imposing and everything was conducted 
with great order. Then the soldiers waited on her to her house 
and fired salutes. There were five hundred natives present, besides 
others. 

Esther's coronation took place about 1770. The 
coronation rock is described as being " about twelve 
rods north of the residence of Thomas Ninagret." It 
projects about three feet above ground and is a famous 
landmark. 

Just over the border of North Kingstown, in East 
Greenwich, there is an acclivity known as Hopkins 



354 Narragansett Bay 

Hill, once the scene of many a witches' frolic. A boulder 
in a nearby wood bears the ominous name of Witches 
Rock, and marks a spot where in a wretched hovel one 
of the most dreaded of the evil sisterhood brewed her 
philters and worked her unhallowed charms. 

Of course there were scoffers at that day as in this ; 
people who thought themselves wise beyond their gen- 
eration. If all the neighbourhood shunned the witch- 
haunted forest they would not give way to such folly ; 
on the contrary it was time to show to how little 
such notions amounted. The rock stood in what had 
been a little clearing, but was now overgrown with 
brambles and vines, with poison ivy and sumach and 
deadly nightshade. A man named Reynolds swore 
that he would plough up the ground about the rock. 
Many of the people living thereabouts went with him 
to see the daring feat accomplished. As every one 
knows — every one that is, who is versed in occult lore — 
there is a deadly animosity between witches and plough- 
shares, as between witches and horse-shoes, possibly 
because of an early fashion of heating the iron red- 
hot and making one suspected of witchcraft walk bare- 
footed upon it. If the victim's feet were not burned she 
was a witch. If they were, she was simply unfortunate. 

Reynolds had not ploughed half-way around the 
rock when the share stuck fast. Strain as they would, 
the oxen could not start it. Then the pin flew 
from the yoke, and upon a third trial the share cracked 
and the straining beasts tumbled upon their knees. 



A Budget of Legends 



355 



A crow flew from the forest and perching on a dead 
tree over the rock commenced such a cawing that Rey- 
nolds addressed it in language that exemplified neither 
Quaker self-control nor Puritan simplicity. Unfor- 
tunately the precise terms of his adjuration have been 




PIANO FROM AN OLD WICKFORD HOUSE 



lost, but some cabalistic phrase he must have hit upon, 
for the crow was as suddenly and as obviously afilicted 
as the Jackdaw of Rheims after the Cardinal called 
for his bell and his book. Trying to take flight it 
dropped with a despairing squawk to the top of the 
rock, letting go in its fall the pin that had flown off 
from the ox-yoke. In a moment, before the astonished 



356 Narragansett Bay 

eyes of the spectators, the crow had changed to the 
witch, with her bell-crowned hat and besom of nettle- 
stalks, and the way she glared at them made the bold- 
est, even Reynolds himself, start back in a panic. In 
another moment the witch had vanished as the crow 
had done, and a large and remarkably black cat sprang 
from the top of the rock and scuttled into a hole at its 
base. They tried to dig it out, but the earth flew in as 
fast as it was shovelled out and at last they gave it up. 
Reynolds struck the rock so lustily with the broken 
ploughshare that the dent may be seen there to this day. 
Of all the tales that old wives tell and children 
remember when the wind howls at night, the most 
dreadful is that of the German vessel that sailed in 
1756 from the Palatinate for Philadelphia, with passen- 
gers and merchandise, and met her untimely end upon 
the shores of Manisees, or Block Island. Set out of 
her course by gales, the voyage was a chapter of mis- 
fortunes, to fill the measure of which the crew mutinied 
and killed the captain, driving the passengers to the 
cabin, where they were held prisoners and slowly 
starved. What food they were able to procure from 
the wretches who had become their masters was doled 
out at exorbitant prices. A cup of water cost twenty 
guilders, and fifty six dollars paid for a single biscuit, 
so that presently the crew had all the ready money 
there was on board, and the passengers saved them the 
trouble of committing outright murder by obligingly 
dying of starvation. 



A Budget of Legends 357 

At last, when there seemed nothing- more to be 
gained, when they had secured all the ready money on 
board, when they had looted whatever of value they 
could lay their hands upon, the mutineers took to the 
boats, leaving the few surviving passengers to their 
fate. That fate, merciless to the last, flung the Pala- 
tine upon the rocks of Block Island, where the wreckers 
soon found her and swarmed aboard, stripping the hull 
of whatever the crew had left and only rescuincr the 
passengers to leave them robbed and penniless. Hav- 
ing gotten all that they could, the shore sharks set fire 
to the hull, and the tide lifted and bore the blazing 
wreck away. It is told that one poor crazed woman, 
who had hidden on board, was driven by the fire to the 
stern of the ship, where she stood screaming and 
wringing her hands till the flames enveloped her. 

Of course the story did not end there. Year after 
year the blazing ship came back and the people who 
had watched the tragedy saw it repeated each twelve- 
month ; saw the flames rise from hull to rioforine, and 
sweep along the side of the ship, each port a roaring 
tongue of fire ; saw the maniac woman rush aft and 
wring her hands, and above all heard the screams of 
her despair. 

There are variations of the story of the Palatine, one 
of which has been set in verse by Whittier. 

Old wives spinning their webs of tow, 
Or rocking weirdly to and fro 
In and out the peat's dull glow, 



35^ Narragansett Bay 

And old men mending their nets of twine, 
Talk together of dream and sign, 
Talk of the lost ship Palatine^ — 

The ship that, a hundred years before, 
Freighted deep with its goodly store. 
In the gales of the equinox went ashore. 

The eager islanders one by one 

Counted the shots of her signal gun. 

And heard the crash when she drove right on! 

Into the teeth of death she sped: 
(May God forgive the hands that fed 
The false lights over the rocky Head!) 

O men and brothers! what sights were there! 
White upturned faces, hands stretched in prayer ! 
Where waves had pity, could ye not spare ? 

Down swooped the wreckers, like birds of prey, 
Tearing the heart of the ship away. 
And the dead had never a word to say. 

And then, with ghastly shimmer and shine 
Over the rocks and the seething brine, 
They burned the wreck of the Palatine. 

In their cruel hearts, as they homeward sped, 
*' The sea and the rocks are dumb," they said: 
" There '11 be no reckoning with the dead." 

But the year went round, and when once more 
Along their foam-white curves of shore 
They heard the line-storm rave and roar, 

Behold! again, with shimmer and shine. 
Over the rocks and the seething brine. 
The flaming wreck of the Palatine ! 

So, haply in fitter words than these, 
Mending their nets on their patient knees 
They tell the legend of Manisees. 



A Budget of Legends 359 

Nor looks nor tones a doubt betray; 

" It is known to us all," they quietly say; 

" We too have seen it in our day." 

Is there, then, no death for a word once spoken ? 
Was never a deed but left its token 
Written on tables never broken ? 

Do the elements subtle reflections give? 
Do pictures of all the ages live 
On Nature's infinite negative, 

Which, half in sport, in malice half. 

She shows at times, with shudder or laugh, 

Phantom and shadow in photograph ? 

For still, on many a moonless night, 

From Kingston Head and from Montauk light 

The spectre kindles and burns in sight. 

Now low and dim, now clear and higher, 
Leaps up the terrible Ghost of Fire, 
Then, slowly sinking, the flames expire. 

And the wise Sound skippers, though skies be fine. 
Reef their sails when they see the sign 
Of the blazing wreck of the Palatine ! 

Lest a skeptical reader should dream that the spec- 
tral appearance of the fated Palatine was simply the 
invention of superstitious minds, I would state that the 
" Palatine light " was frequently seen during the middle 
of the eighteenth century, and men who scouted the 
idea of a supernatural appearance tried to fit to it a 
scientific explanation, but they never succeeded. 

Dr. Aaron C. Willey, a physician of Block Island, 
wrote in 181 1 to a friend in New York as follows : 



360 Narragansett Bay 

This curious irradiation rises from the ocean near the northern part 
of the island. Its appearance is nothing different from a blaze of fire ; 
whether it actually touches the water or merely hovers over it is 
uncertain, for I am informed that no person has been near enough 
to decide accurately. Sometimes it is small, resembling the light 
through a distant window ; at others expanding to the highness of 
a ship with all her canvas spread. When large it displays either 
pyramidal form, or three constant streams. This light often seems 
to be in a constant state of mutation ; decreasing by degrees it be- 
comes invisible, or resembles a lucid point ; then shining anew, 
sometimes with a sudden flare, at others by a gradual increasement 
to its former size. . . . It is seen at all seasons of the year, and 
for the most part in the calm which precedes an easterly or 
south-easterly storm. 

The above authority states that he was twice an eye- 
witness to this phenomenon. Another witness to the 
Palatine hght was Mr. Benjamin Congdon, who pub- 
lished an account of it in the Newport Mercury, March 
23, 1878. In this article he says : 

About the burning Palatine ship you speak of in your interesting 
papers, I may say that I have seen her eight or ten times or more. 
In those days nobody doubted her being sent by an Almighty 
power to punish those wicked men who murdered her passengers 
and crew. After the last of these were dead she was never more 
seen. We lived when I was young in Charlestown, directly op- 
posite Block Island, where we used to have a plain view of the 
burning ship. 

Tradition affirms that of the passengers of the ship 
who reached the shore alive only two recovered from 
the terrific hardships to which they had been subjected. 
These married in the island, one of them, known as 
" Tall Katten," becomingf the wife of a ne^ro. 

The reference made by Whittier to the nefarious 



A Budget of Legends 361 

practices of Block Island wreckers has a basis of fact, 
or else those nimble scavengers of the rocks have been 
much maligned. To fishermen, toiling with their lines 
and nets for a precarious livelihood, the chance wreck 
that the sea drove almost to their doors was a golden 
opportunity not to be neglected. Even honest salvage 
was lucrative work and appropriation opened a short cut 
to opulence. When the storm had destroyed so much 
it must have seemed but a triflinof dereliction to make 
away with the odds and ends remaining. The wrecker 
might have argued that the ocean was the actual high- 
wayman and that he was only a gleaner, a picker up of 
inconsiderable trifles. When the greater robber failed 
to secure a victim, what could be more natural than for 
the human limpets that fed on his margin to try in their 
small way to assist destiny. It could not be charged as 
a crime that a man should move a light from one 
tempest swept ledge to another, even though some 
foolish pilot out in the night was setting his helm to 
steer by the inconstant beacon. 

If it is true, as has been told, that an old fisherman 
tied a lantern to the scrawny neck of the only horse in 
town and then set the animal loose to browse upon the 
scanty turf above the rocks of Clay Head, it must be 
remembered that he was not sure that a vessel would 
come ashore, nor did he do this deed through malice 
nor for any ugly motive, but simply that he might gain 
an honest livelihood. His method was not better nor 
worse than that of thousands of men, counted reputable 



362 Narragansett Bay 

in their communities, whose Hves are devoted to the 
acquisition of other men's wealth. 

The bodies of the ship-wrecked sailors and passengers 
did not invariably drift ashore after a vessel was wrecked. 
Frequently a whole crew was saved — so it is evident 
that when deaths occurred from the misplacing of 
shore lights they were to be regarded not as ugly 
murders, but in the light of mysterious dispensations 
of Providence. 

The legend of Lee, a Block Island fisherman and 
wrecker who afterwards took to the high seas and to 
bolder if not more evil courses, will serve as a com- 
panion piece to the tale of the Palatine. 

Captain Lee, having followed the life of a roving 
trader for several years, finally brought his vessel into 
a Spanish port, where he secretly shipped more arms 
and gunpowder than a peaceful merchantman might be 
thought to require, and gathered about him one of the 
most villainous crews that ever fought in a fo'c'sle. 
Having got his men safe on board, the captain broached 
a barrel of spirits with which they were soon drugged 
into a peaceful insensibility, which was the best possible 
guarantee that they would be on hand when wanted. 
While these and other preparations were going forward, 
a man appeared and begged the captain's attendance 
upon a lady who waited at the quay and desired speech 
with him. 

His curiosity piqued by this message, Lee gave an 
extra hitch to his waist-band and swaggered out upon 



A Budget of Legends 363 

the wharf, where to his disappointment, instead of some 
sloe-eyed hiissey challenging his gallantry, he found 
himself face to face, if the figure may be allowed, with 
a lady deeply veiled in widow's mourning, who rode 
upon a snow-white palfrey. 

" I hear that you sail for the New England Colonies, 
Sefior," said a sad voice behind the veil. " I desire to 
become a passenger in your vessel." 

*' Nay," said Lee without taking the trouble to 
answer politely ; " my ship is full enough of other cargo ; 
I take no passengers." 

The lady, not to be rebuffed, renewed her request 
and in her eagerness put aside her veil. The first thing 
that Lee noticed was that her hand was covered with 
rings of price ; then he saw a face so beautiful that for 
a moment he forgot the jewels. He looked about and 
observed the group of servants, the richness of every- 
thing pertaining to this lady. No doubt she was 
wealthy and 

" I bethink me," said Lee, removing his hat as he 
spoke, " that I have spare room for a passenger like 
yourself, if you can put up with a trader's accom- 
modations." 

" I must have my palfrey, too," added the widow. 

A refusal sprang to the captain's lips, but he spoke 
with unusual courtesy : " Your palfrey, too, by all 
means," said he. 

A few words more and the matter was settled. The 
next day the widow and her servants embarked and 



364 Narragansett Bay 

the ship set sail for her long voyage. Scarce had they 
sailed down the land astern of them than the captain 
called up the servants of the Spanish lady, and after a 
few words delivered them over to his crew. Whatever 
became of them the legend does not inform us in de- 
tail, beyond the fact that several bodies were that night 
thrown to the sharks, and the lady was left alone in the 
hands of as merciless a set of corsairs as ever hoisted 
skull and cross-bones. 

Then Lee went to the cabin which had been assicrned 
to the beautiful widow, but found it locked. Too late she 
realised the character of the man in whose power she had 
placed herself. As he burst in the door she succeeded 
in eluding him, and in another moment had clambered 
upon the rail of the vessel and plunged into the ocean. 

The pirate was enraged over what he was pleased 
to consider his ill-luck, and not even the treasure which 
the lady had brought on board consoled him for her 
escape. His eye fell upon the white palfrey, and with 
an oath he ordered that flung overboard also. For 
awhile the crew amused themselves by watching the 
creature's efforts to swim after the ship, but at last, 
with a great cry, it sank. Then Lee turned to his 
cabin, sullen and silent. His men feared him, telling 
each other that he had the evil eye ; one of them he 
stabbed in a drunken fury and threw his body over- 
board, and his ruffians crossed themselves, being sure 
that the shriek they heard was nothing less than the 
neigh of the white horse. 



A Budget of Legends 365 

After many adventures, in the course of which ves- 
sels were sacked and set adrift in flames, and prisoners 
made to walk the plank, or worse, the fame of Lee's 
vessel was wide-spread, and she was hunted from Mas- 
sachusetts Bay to the Spanish main. At last the buc- 
caneers brought her to Block Island and then fired and 
set her adrift, after removing everything of value. 
After that the captain and a few chosen associates 
essayed to live ashore for awhile, in riotous enjoyment 
of their wealth ; but one night something like a burning 
vessel was seen approaching the island, and among 
those who went down to the rocky shore to watch it 
was Lee. As the wreck came towards that bold coast, 
he saw with horror that the waves were covered with 
the bodies of those who had been his victims, amonof 
them the form of the beautiful widow, whose veil floated 
like a pall upon the blood-red waters. In advance of 
all swam a white horse, that sprang upon the shore and 
made directly for the terror-striken pirate. " Controlled 
by some destiny against which he was powerless, he 
mounted the spectral steed and was borne away. Some 
say that he was taken into the sea and drowned, which 
seems too mild an issue for such a bloody career ; 
others aver that he is still riding, and as the destina- 
tion of the sailor on horseback is proverbial, it is as- 
sumed that when his long, involuntary gallop is over 
Lee, the pirate, will meet the fate he so richly deserves, 
at the hands of the unpopular personage that carried 
off Tom Walker. 



366 Narragansett Bay 

Dana's great story, based upon a version of this 
legend, was widely read a generation ago. It is not 
unlikely that the same mysterious appearance which 
superstition has associated with the return of the Pala- 
tine ship may have been the genesis of the story of the 
Corsair Lee. 

Among the many folk-tales of the Narragansett 
country there are not a few told of one James Scribbins, 
a noted preacher among the Friends many years ago. 
He was not bright and he lacked education, but when 
inspired by " the Spirit " he preached eloquently. On 
one occasion, having been introduced to a man of con- 
siderable intellectual culture, the latter expressed sur- 
prise that Scribbins could not explain the meaning of a 
not uncommon word. 

" You used it correctly a little while ago, when you 
were preaching," he exclaimed. 

"Yes," said Scribbins, " I knew what it meant then." 

The Quakers loved to point to Scribbins as an illus- 
tration of their favourite article of belief, that the Spirit 
animated even fools and made the dull His mouthpiece 
in the expression of inspired truth. 

One day Scribbins was sleeping under a tree and 
awoke with a jumping toothache, which he was sure he 
could not possibly survive. After enduring the agony 
till he thought it must shortly make an end of him, he 
managed to write on a bit of paper, "James Scribbins 
died of a tooth-ache." This he pinned upon the tree 
and laid down beneath it to die, but presently his pain 



A Budget of Legends 367 

was assuaged and forgetting all about the notice he 
had written he went on his way. It was found by a 
neighbour, and the report of his death spread abroad, 
but the search for his body resulted in a conviction that 
the report of his death, like a similar bit of news con- 
cerning Mark Twain, had been "grossly exaggerated." 



Index 



371 



Crandall, Captain, 172 
Cranston, Captain, 293 
Cranston family, the, 290 
Cranston, Mrs. Samuel, 296, 299 
Cranston, Samuel, 296, 299 
Crying Boy, 236 
Crystal Rock, 7, 9 
Cumberland, 93, 127, 337 
Cushman, Charlotte, 314 



D 



Danish Peninsula, 72 

Danube River, 72 

Dartmouth, Earl of, Secretary for 

Colonies, 181, 185 
De Barras, 213 
De Broglie, 213 
Decatur, Commodore Stephen, 301, 

305 

Decatur family, the, 305 

Declaration of Independence ac- 
cepted by Rhode Island Assem- 
bly, 288 

Dedford, 324 

Dennis, Captain William, 151, 294 

Dennis, John, 294 

Dennis, Thomas, 294 

De Soleux, 213 

Despair Island, 13, 55 

D'Estaing in command of French 
fleet, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 
205, 206, 208, 211 

Deuxponts, 213 

De Wolf, James, 85, 87, 88 

De Wolf, Marc Anthony, 100 

Dc Wolf, Mrs. Marc Anthony, 100 

De Wolf-Middleton house, 86 

De Wolf, William, 86 

Dickenson, William, 178 

Dighton, 3, 125, 134 

Dighton Rock, 3 

Dixwell, Colonel John, 233, 234 

Dolphin, the brig, burned, 292, 293 

Dolphin, the, U. S. dispatch boat, 77 

D 'Orleans, 213 

Dorothy's Hollow, 236 

Dorr's Rebellion, 325 

D'Oyapoc, 155 

Drake, Sir Francis, 2, 136 

Drum Rock, 42 

Duddingston, Lieutenant William, 
164, 165, 166, 169, 170, 171, 175, 
176, 178, 179 

Dumplings, the, 47, 58, 59, 69 

Dunn, Captain Benjamin, 170 

Dutch Island, 56, 57, 269, 316 

Dutch Island Harbour, 55 



Duties on American commerce, 161 
Dyer, Mary, 144, 286 
Dyer, William, 144, 272, 273, 286 
Dyer's Island, 13, 208 



E 



East Greenwich, 9, 14, 36, 38, 42, 
46, 225, 238, 321, 322, 323, 324, 
325, 326, 329, 331, 7,^1,, 335, 336, 

337- 341, 353 
East Greenwich Harbour, 322 
Easton, Nicholas, 272 
Easton's Beach, 295, 310 
Elizabeth Islands, 57 
Elizar, Isaac, 307 
Emancipation of slaves attempted, 

244, 245 
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 160 
Eric the Red, i, 102, 134 
Esther, Indian queen, 353 



Fales house, Bristol, 86 

Fall River, 2, 7, 10, 52, 70, 93, 105, 
106, 129, 131, 132, 133 

Fall River Water Works, 133 

Fauque, Father, French priest cap- 
tured by Captain Potter, 156, 157 

Fayerweather family, the, 248 

Fenno's wharf, 170 

Field Point, 30 

Fiske, James, Jr., 83 

Fiske, John, 336, 337 

Fones, Captain John, 251 

Fones, Daniel, 148, 149 

Fort Adams, 58, 61, 62, 68, 283, 304 

Fort Daniel, 326 

Fort Dumpling, 61 

Fort Greene, 304 

Fortress Monroe, 61 

Fort Walcott, 61 

Fox, George, 286 

Fox, John, 225 

Francis I., 5 

Francis, Governor, 98 

Franklin, Benjamin, 330, 334 

Franklin, James, 306 

Freeborn, William, 279 

Freeholders, qualifications for. 250 

Free school, first establishment on 
Aquidneck, 299 

Freetown, 132 

French Creoles sold as sla\es by 
Captain Dennis, 151 

French privateers, 145, 146 

Fry, Benjamin Greene, 335 



11'^ 



Index 



Fry family, the, 335 
Fuller, Mr. O. P., 330 
Fulton's teapot, 319 



Gallows Field, 295 

Gardner, Nicholas, 255 

Gardner, Paris, 238 

Gaspee, the, 18, 33, 96, 99, 160, 164, 

165, 169, 170, 171, 172, 173, 175, 

176, 178, 179, i8o, 181, 183, 184, 

185, 186, 189 
General Assembly at Newport 

(1672), 224, 225 
General Court established, 35 
General Greene, the, U. S. frigate, 

228 
Germany, 72 
Gettysburg, 46 
Gladding, Ben, 350, 351 
Goat Island, 61, 63, 162, 164, 295 
Godfrey, Captain, 150 
Godfrey family, the, 290 
Goffe, the regicide, 233, 234 
Goodrich on the Norse origin of 

certain prehistoric remains in 

Rhode Island, 2 
Gooseberry Island, 55 
Gorton, Elder, 334 
Gorton, Samuel, 14, 7,1,, 34, 35, 36, 

37. 38, 55. 92. 2,?>i^ 342 
Gorton, Samuel, Jr., 329 
Gould or Gold Island, 208, 268 
Grant, General U. S., 45 
Gravelly Point, 295, 305 
Graves's Point, 351 
Greene, Colonel Christopher, 325, 

341 . . , 

Greene, ex-Police Commissioner, of 

New York, 46 
Greene family, the, 14, 45, 46, 335 
Greene, General Francis, 45 
Greene, General Nathaniel, 191, 

199, 206, 323, 325, 326, 327, 333, 

334. 3?,(>' 341 
Greene, George W., 336, 337 
Greene, Hon. Ray, 334 
Greene, John, Deputy-Governor, 

Greene Memorial, 43, 45 

Greene, Samuel, 333 

Greene, Silas, 45 

Greene, Thomas, 165, 305 

Greene, William, Sr., Governor, 333 

Greene, William, Jr., Governor, 

^ 2>iZ^ 343 
Greenland, i 



Greenwich, 6 
Greenwich Bay, 6, 218 
Greyhound, the British warship, 295 

H 
Haiti, 9 

Halpin, painter, 304 
Hammond Hill, 223 
Hancock, John, 199 
Handy, Major John, 288 
Harlem Heights, battle of, 190 
Harrison, Peter, 300 
Haven, opinion concerning Norse 

remains, 2 
Haversham, 324 
Hawk, Lord Admiral, 166 
Hawkins, Sir John, 52, 136 
Hays, Moses, 308 
Hazard, college town, 244 
Hazard, Enoch, M.D., 303 
Hazard family, the, 14, 250, 259, 

260, 303 
Hazard, Isaac Peter, 248 
Hazard, Joseph, 319 
Hazard, Miss Caroline, 221 
Hazard, Robert, 241, 244, 248, 286 
Hazard, Thomas B., 238, 248, 251, 

272 
Hazard, Thomas R. (Shepherd 

Town), 226, 237, 238, 257, 259 
Hebrew families in Newport, 308 
Henry, the father of the American 

stage, 293 
Herjulfsen, Bjorni, i 
Heron, the, India ship, 148 
HerreshoflE family, the, 75, 78, 98, 

319 
Herreshoff, Frederick, 98 
Herreshoff, Lewis, 98 
Herreshoff Works at Bristol, 89 ' 
Hill, Lieutenant, 161 
Hillsborough, Earl of, 164, 178 
Hog Island, 13 

Honeyman, Rev. James, 300, 302 
Honeyman's Hill, 205 
Hope Island, 13, 55, 195 
Hopeworth, 3, 105 
Hopkins, Captain John B., 170, 171 
Hopkins, Commodore Esek, 171, 

188 
Hopkins, Governor, 100 
Hopkins Hill, 353, 354 
Hopkins, Hon. Stephen, 171, 180, 

277 
Horsemanden, Chief Justice, 181, 

182 
Howe, Admiral, Lord, 201, 202^ 
206, 208 



Index 



2>72> 



Ho-^land's Ferr>-, i6i, 200 

Hu ard. Judge, 94, 98 

Hu \ard. Margaret, 94 

HulL John, mintmaster, 139, 221. 

2=T 268 
H -.. Ann. 272, 277 

}' Ed"R'ard. 279 

H- -. .- r.. Governor. 184. 1S5, 

2:1 



I 



Icseland, i 

Indian Comer, 346, 351, 352 

India Point, Pror.-idence, 25 



Jackson, Richard. Jr.. Go .-err: or. 4 
Jafiray. WiTliam. 234 
JajnestO'iSTi, 56 
Jan^-ier. Thomas. 290 
JeSrey. Mr., 273 

'•/^ •. ;, . the. -prison ship. 152 
_'v'- ■ Peter. 13S 

r '- 's'f^.^verry at Xewport. 306 
; - ; r. Paul, 143 

-. '^ -:;:^g&- 350 

' Wiiiiam, 140. 143 
; -T^:--. Jacob, 307 



K 



Kaiie. the. war vessel. 1 88 

Kent Cotmri-. 36. 321, 324, 329, 335 

Kentish G-oards. the, 325, 326 

Ker.von. WiliLam, 353 
y.~'''.=z Point, 27, 28. 30 
I-I: i-Cimeeset meadoTT. 251 
Kickaniuet River. 50. 102. 103, 

King. Charles B.. 301 

King Philip. 11, 41. 42, 45, 98, 106, 

lie. 113. 114, 115. 116. 119. I2C. 

121. 122 
King Philip's War, 115. ij^-, 22- 
King's Cotmty, 14. 24 
King's Proi-ince, 222. ^2ji 
Kingston. 9. 225, 237. 238. 242. 265 
-Kingstown, 6. 10. 222. 230. 244. 

258. 259, 303 
KmgstCTim churches. 25s 



Ladd. William. 30^ 
Lafayette. Marqu^ de. 199. 201. 
2S.6. 323. 334 



334 



Land Commissioners appointed bv 
General Assembly at Newport in 
1672. 224. 225 

La Touche. 213 

Laurens. Colonel, 206 

Lauzan, Biron..2i3 

Lav.-ton, PoUy. 214 

LeBr*-- '' * r. 251 

Lee. C 2. 366 

Lee, G. . _. ..^rles. 192, 197 

Lee, General Robert E., 45 

Le Grand. Peter, 138 

Leif the Lucky, i, 2, 4, 102. 105. 
,134 

L'Enfant. ilajor ' : 

Lewis. Ida. 61 

Ly::dr.;- 325 

L'- '^r: - > -laimed in 

r'.:./.-: . -i'. :. 21, 22 
L:''.rr--v .^ir^y the, 183 
Liberty, the sloop, 163, 164 
Litne Rock 6t 278 
L - "' 160 

L 

L ....^ 

L 284 

L 237, 238 

L '.el. 206 

L .ry W., 2, 97. 309, 

337 
Lcmg I^and, battle <rf, 191 

Long Point. 326 
Lopez. .Aaron. 3S7 
L'"'— ' ' '^' ' Mana. 307 
L- ' -5. 307 

L ^.d,5 

layman s, o 

M 

MachtsHa. i^y T58 

i: ' JT, 246 

y 248 

: the. 114 

British re\-entse 

r'rey. 291. 293 
290. 292 

Ma11:»one's; wharf. 295 
Ml ' Island. 72 

y .„- . 

y - . 306. 307 

3»r 229 

y. -,5,6.15,17.27,33,34. 



374 



Index 



Massachusetts colony, 92, 95, 109 
Massasoit, 109, no 
Mather, Cotton, 3, 114, 160 
Mawney, Dr. John, 171, 172, 179 
Metaconiet, 109, iio 
Miantonomo, 114, 115, 353 
Middletown, R. I., 197 
Minturn family, the, 226 
Montagu, Admiral, 99, 155, 166, 

Moshausick River, 20, 25 

Mott, John, 317 

Mount Hope, 3, 4, 7, 9, 11, 47, 70, 

98, 105, 106, 107, 113, 120, 124, 

132, 153, 223, 314 
Mount Hope Bay, 3, 4, 5, 10, 102, 

105, 107, 116, 121, 122, 124, 132, 

^33' 135. 268 
Movmt Hope lands, 92 
Miiller, Professor Max, 2 
Mumford, Miss, 235, 236 
Mumford's, 223 
Munday, Richard, 287 



N 



Nanquit Point, 1,7,, 169, 170, 175 

Nantucket, 97 

Narragansett, 9, 51, 52, 56, 57, 119, 
120, 133 

Narragansett Bay, 5, 6, 9, 13, 14, 
15, 16, 47, 49, 50,^56, 67, 72, 75, 
93, 105, io6, no, 218 

Narragansett Indians, 42, 113, 225, 
260, 352 

Narragansett Pier, 57, 58, 219, 223, 
224, 226, 231, 263, 267, 342 

Narragansett planters, 246, 247, 
255, 256, 259, 260 

Narragansett River, 218 

Narragansett settlers, 136 

Nassau, Prince of, 5 

National Navy, the, 190 

Naturalisation laws of Rhode Isl- 
and, 307 

Naval battle near Newport, 149 

Negro election, 242, 243 

New Orleans, 79 

Newport, 2, 5, 6, 10, 14, 26, 27, 28, 
35- 36, 56,^ 58, 61, 64, 67, 70, 79, 
80, 100, 102, 106, 128, 188, 189, 
190, 191, 195, 198, 199, 201, 202, 
208, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 
217, 224, 227, 238, 246, 247, 258, 
267, 270, 273, 274, 275, 278, 279, 
283, 284, 286, 290, 292, 293, 294, 
295, 296, 297, 300, 301, 305, 306, 
310, 314, 315, 316, 318, 342 



Newport cliffs, 313 

Newport County, 13 

Newport garrison, 206 

Newport Harbour, 62, 63, 77, 162 

A^ewport Mercury, the, 303, 306, 360 

Newport stone tower, 2, 105 

Newtown Rangers, 341 

New York, 72, 79, 100, 198, 202, 

290 ^ ^ 
New York's opposition to Great 

Britain, 160, 161 
New York Yacht Club, 64 
Nicholas, Jonathan, 304 
Ninagret, Thomas, 353 
Norris house, Bristol, 83 
North Kingstown, 324, 337, 341, 

346, 351, 353 
Northmen, i, 2, 3, 4, 1 1, 50, 134 

O 

Oliver, Nathaniel, 93 
Olneyville, 6 
Otis, Harrison Gray, 97 
Overing, Mr., 195 



Packeckoe. 306 

Packwood, Captain, 163 

Page, Benjamin, 171, 172 

Paine, Captain, 150 

Palatine light, 359, 360 

Palatine ship, 356, 357, 359, 360, 

362, 366 
Pappoosesquaw Neck, 86, 92, 94, 

95, 97, 98, 99, 102 
Patent secured by Roger Williams, 

277 
Patience Island, 13, 55, 195 
Pawcatuck, 218, 225, 229, 263 
Pawtucket, 14, 20, 30 
Pawtuxet, 9, 36, 99, 170, 175, 176, 

177 
Pawtuxet Rangers, 325 
Peacedale, 258, 259, 319 
Peale, Rembrant, 334 
Pepperill, Sir William, 149 
Peqviot trail, 41, 225, 322, 341 
Perry, Christopher Raymond, 228 
Perry, Commodore Matthew Cal- 

braith, 230 
Perry, Commodore Oliver Hazard, 

226, 228, 229, 230, 301 
Perry family, the, 227 
Peterson, Rev. Edward, 306 
Pettaquamscutt River, 223, 226, 

230, 233, 234, 235, 236, 248, 260 



Index 



75 



Pettaquamscutt purchase, 221, 250 

Philadelphia, 100 

Philip of Pokanoket, loq, 114 

Philip's War, 45, 127, 344 

Phillips, Colonel, 341 

Pierce, Christopher, 341 

Pigott, General Sir Robert, 198, 200 

Pilgrim fathers, the, 49 

Pirates hanged at Providence, 152 

Plymouth, 92, 93, 97, iio 

Pocasset, 127, 273 

Pocasset Neck, 116 

Point Judith, 9, 13, 101, 218, 224, 

229, 265, 267, 293, 319, 322 
Point Pleasant farm, 94, 96, 98 
Point Wharf Cove, 343 
Pojack Island, 55 
Pokanoket, 113, 120 
Pollock fainily, the, 308 
Pork Hill, 346 
Porter, John, 279 
Portsmouth, 3, 10, 26, 70, 238, 273, 

278, 284,315,316,317,318 
Portsmouth Grove, 197 
Potowomut River, 341 
Potter, Hopestill, 14, 100 
Potter, Squire 'Lisha, 260 
Potter, Simeon, 14,96,99,152,155, 

156, 157, 158, 159 
Potter, Judge William, 237, 339, 340 
Potter, Mrs. William, 339 
Pottowomut, 326 
Prescott, General in command of 

British- garrison at Newport, 55, 

192, 193, 195, 196, 197, 247 
Price's Neck, 208, 283 
Prince Frederick, privateer, 

wrecked, 149 
Privateers, 137, 138, 148 
Property qualifications necessary to 

freeholding in Rhode Island, 250 
Providence, 6, 9, 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 

21, 22, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, T,T„ 35, 

51, 52,83,92,94, 96,97, 100, 1 01, 

106, 143, 169, 190, 199, 238, 272, 

274, 291, 324, 325, 342, 343 
Providence Bay, 6 
Providence River, 9, 16, 19, 20, 30, 

31,33,70,269 
Providence, the, frigate, 140, 143 
Prudence Island, 6, 10, 13, 17, 55, 

56,70,71, 72,73, 75, 76, 143, 180, 

195, 208 



Quaker College, 
Quaker Hill, 20 



Q 

Providence, 
I, 206, 315 



300, 301, 



25 



Quanochontaug, 227 
Quanto, 27, 28, 29, 30 

R 



Rabbit Island, 343 
Rafer, Professor, 2, 105 
Read, Captain, 152 
Redwood, Abraham, 

302 
Redwood library, 299, 300, 301, 

3°i, 307 

Redwood, Miss, 214 

Reid, Captain, 163, 164, 165 

Resistance of Newport men to Brit- 
ish oppression, 162 

Revenge, the, U. S. war vessel, 228, 
229 

Revenue laws, 164 

Revera, Jacob R., 307 

Reward offered for apprehension of 
those engaged in Gaspec affair, 

183 

Reynolds family, the, 260 

Rhode Island, 2, 6, 9, 10, 14, 21, 22, 
34. 35. 36, 41. 4Q, 56, 70, 93. 106, 
161 

Rhode Island Assembly, 187 

Rhode Island College, 35 

Rhode Island declaration of inde- 
pendence, 187 

Rhode Island Gazette, the, 306 

Rhode Island Historical Society, 
141 

Rhode Island, the island of, 102 

Rhodes, Joseph, 171 

Robinson family, the, 248, 250 

Robinson, James, 260 

Robinson, John, 263 

Robinson, " Quaker Tom," 302 

Robinson, Sir William, 264 

Robinson, Sylvester, 264, 267 

Rochambeau, Admiral, 211, 212, 

213. 214. 334 

Rochester, 324 

Rocky Point, 37 

Roger Williams Park, 20, 30 

Romer, Colonel, 61 

Roome, John, 316 

Rose, the, frigate, 189 

Round Point, 55 

Roval commissioners. 93 

Royal patent, the, 37 

Rumselling in colonial Rhode Isl- 
and, 147 

Russell, Mr., 296, 299 

Russell, Rev. Mr., 233, 234 



Zl^ 



Index 



Sabin, James, 170 

Sachuest, 310 

Saconnet River or passage, 10, 50, 
102, 105, 106, 120, 124, 153, 199, 
200, 208, 310, 322 

Saffin, agent for Atherton Com- 
pany, 251 

St. John, the British revenue ves- 
sel, 161, 162, 164, 215 

St. Michael's Church, Bristol, 94 

Salein, 1 7 

Sandwich, Adtniral, Lord, 166 

Sandy Point lighthouse, 69, 70 

Saunderstown, 56, 223 

Sausaman, 114 

Scarborough, the, British war vessel, 

304 
Scituate, 144 
Scott, Edward, 300 
Scribbins, James, 266, 367 
Seekonk River, 20 
Sessions, Darius, Deputy-Governor, 

164, 165, 179 
Sewall, Judge, 251, 252 
Sewall, Hannah, 251, 252 
Shaw, Mrs., 334 
Shawomet, 24, 36, 37 
Sherman, Philip, 279 
Shipbuilding at Providence, 26 
Skeleton in Armour, the, i 
Slate Hill, 315 
Slavery, 24, 242, 246 
Slave trade, the, 20, 26, 87, 241, 

242, 244 
Slave traders, 147 
Slocuni, John, 341 
Slocumville, 351 

Smith, Richard, 241, 342, 343, 344 
Sinith, Turpin, 172 
Somerset, 134 
South Kingstown, 218, 237, 243, 

339 

Southwick, Solomon, 303 

Spar or Sparrow Island, 129, 268, 
269 

Spencer, Abiel, 303 

Spencer, General, 102 

Spouting Rock, 313 

Sprague, Governor William, 223 

Stamp Act, resistance to, 184 

Starvegoat Island, 30 

State Hotise at Newport, 287, 288 

State House at Providence, 20, 21 

State of Rhode Island and Provi- 
dence Plantations, 238 

State Soldiers' Home, 105, 1^2 



Steamboats, 319, 320 
Steele, Isaac, 294 
Sterling, Dr. Henry, 179 
Stoneman, Abigail, 305 
Stony Point, 197 
Stuart, Gilbert, 226, 227 
Sullivan, General, 199, 200, 201, 
202, 203, 205, 206, 207, 208, 315, 

3.23. 334 
Surinam, 155 



Talleyrand, 213 
Tarrytown-on-the-Hudson, 341 
Tartar, the, commanded by Captain 

Fones, 148, 149 
Taunton, 3, 119, 125, 135 
Taunton River, the, 3, 105, 125,133, 

134 
Taylor, Joseph, 341 
Tay, the, privateer, 294 
Tefft, Joshua, 352 
Tenth Street lottery, 272 
Thurlow, Attorney-General, 180, 

Tillinghast, John, 300 

Tiverton, 3, 9, 10, 14, 102, 124, 127, 

128, 191, 192, 195, 199, 200, 318 
Tiverton, encampment, 36, 93, 127 
Tiverton Heights, 315 
Tiverton wharves, 181 
Tonomy Hill, 314 
Torpedo station on Goat Island, 61 
Torrey, Silvia, 237 
Totten, General, 61 
Touro, Abrahain, 308 
Touro, Isaac, 308 
Touro, Judah, 308 
Touro Park, 289 

Tower Hill, 223, 224, 225, 226, 318 
Treley, William, 305 
Trinity Church at Newport, 301, 

302 
Trumbull, Governor John, 258 
Twain, Mark, 49, 367 



U 



United States, the, 2 

United States Navy, 188, 190 

Updyke family, the, 248 

V 

Vane, Sir Henry, 17, 287 
Varnum, General James Mitchell, 

325- 335 
Vassal, William, 94, 96, 97, 98 



Index 



377 



Vernon house, Rochambeau's head- 
quarters, 214 
Verrazani, 5, 50, 51, 322 
Vineland, 2 
Viomenil, 213 

W 

Wager, Sir Charles, 139, 142 
Wakefield, 224, 263 
Walker, William J., M.D., 301 
Wallace, Captain Sir James, 91, 

100, 189, 190, 326; his fleet, loi 
Wampanoag Indians, 98, 106, 113 
Wanton, Edward, 128, 144 
Wanton family, the, 144, 290 
Wanton, Gideon, 128 
Wanton, Governor Joseph, 71, 128, 

164, 165, 166, 167, 175, 176, 178, 

180, 181, 182, 190, 301 
Wanton, John, 145, 146 
Wanton, Joseph, 14 
Wanton, Joseph, of Tiverton, 128, 

147. 181, 318 
Wanton, William, 71, 144, 145, 146, 

147 
War College, the, 63 
War for Independence, 13, 18, 71, 

80, 95, 100, 215, 294, 326, 335 
War of 1812, 80 
Ward, Henry, 176 
Wardon's Pond, 218, 263 
Warren, 2;^, 93, loi, 102, 127, 326 
]]'arren, frigate, 140 
Warren, Russell, architect, 83, 91 
Warwick, 9, 10, 14, 26 
Warwick, Baptist church at, 41, 

238, 284, 316, 321, 322 
Warwick, Earl of, 37, 222 
Warwick Neck, 28, 34, 36, 41, 45, 

195 
Warwick shore, 33, 34, 35, 37, 38, 

162 
Washington, Augustine, 207 
Washington County, 22, 223, 241 
Washington, General George, 191, 

197, 207, 214, 272, 288, 326, 334 



Washington, the, war vessel, 188, 

189 
Watch Hill, 229 
Watuppa Lake, 133 
Wayland, Rev. Francis, Jr., 22 
Wayne, General Anthony, 197 
Weetamoe, Indian Princess, 116, 

119 
West Greenwich, 36 
West Indian trade, 99 
West Point, 46, 61 
Westerlv, 318, 324 
Whale Rock, 69 
Whale Rock Light, 253 
Whalley, Edward, 226, 233, 234, 

235. 252 
Whalley, John, 93, 234, 252 
Wharton, agent for Atherton Co., 

251 
Whipple, Commodore Abraham, 

140, 141, 170, 171, 188, 189 
Whittier, John G., 360 
Wickford, 6, 9, 225, 263, 341, 343, 

344. 347 
Wickford Junction, 342 
Wickham, Samuel, 300 
Wilbur, Samuel, 279 
Wilkinson, Jemima, 237, 337, 338, 

339, 340, 341 
Willey, Aaron C, D.D., 359 
Williams, Roger, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 

20, 21, 25, 26, 27, 33, 35, 36, 55, 

71, 92, 96, no, 143, 171, 272, 274, 

277, 287, 291, 342, 343 
Williams, Thomas R., 258 
Wilson, Jim, 238 
Windmill, old stone tower in Touro 

Park, Newport, 289 
Winthrop, John, 17, 71, 143, 218 
Winthrop, the younger, 221, 222 
Witches Rock, 354 
Wren, Sir Christopher, 302 



Yankee, the, privateer, 85 



THE MOHAWn 
VALLEY 

Its Legends and its History 

By W. Max Reid. With Seventy Full-page Il- 
lustrations from Photographs by J. Arthur 
Maney. 8\ (By mail, $3.80.) . . Net $3 50 

There is no section of pleasant valley-land, of lake- 
and forest-dotted wilderness, of rushing streams and cul- 
tivated fields, east of the Mississippi, that surpasses in 
its wealth of scenery that bit of the Empire State known 
as the Mohawk Valley. It is natural that such a land 
should be rich in romance, both legendary and historical. 
From Schenectady to Rome, every town has its romantic 
story of the French Wars or the Revolution, every bit of 
woodland has its v/ealth of pre-historic legend. 

Many characters of national interest figure prom- 
inently in this record of the Mohawk Valley, while war- 
like Indians, black-robed Jesuits, French officers, and 
early English settlers — the picturesque population of 
the Valley a century ago — live again in its pages. Pho- 
tographs and sketches of persons, places, and events 
profusely illustrate the volume and aid the imagination 
of the reader who knows and loves the Valley of to- 
day. 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

Ne^v YorK London 



TKe Romance of tKe 
Colorado River 

A Complete Account of the Discovery and of the Explor- 
ations from 1540 to the Present Time, with Particular 
Reference to the two Voyages of Powell through the line 
of the Great Canyons. 

By Frederick S. Dellenbaugh, Member of the U. S. Colo- 
rado River Expedition of 1871 and 1872, author of " North 
Americans of Yesterday," etc. 8°. Fully illustrated. 
$3.50 net. By mail, $3.75. 

" His scientific training, his long experience in this region, and 
his eye for natural scenery enable him to make this account of the 
Colorado River most graphic and interesting. No other book 
equally good can be written for many years to come — not until our 
knowledge of the river is greatly enlarged." — Boston Herald. 

" Mr. Dellenbaugh writes with enthusiasm and balance about his 
chief, and of the canyon with a fascination that made him disin- 
clined to leave it, and brings him thirty years later to its description 
with undiminished interest." — N^etv York Tribune. 

TKe Hudson River from 
Ocean to Source 

Historical — Legendary — Picturesque. By Edgar Mayhew 
Bacon, author of "Chronicles of Tarrytown," etc. 8". 
With over 100 illustrations. Net $4.50. (By mail, $4.80.) 

*' The value of this handsome quarto does not depend solely on 
the attractiveness with which Mr. Bacon has invested the whole 
subject ; it is a kind of footnote to the more conventional histories, 
because it throws light upon the life and habits of the earliest 
settlers. It is a study in Dutch civilization in the New World, 
■ severe enough in intention to be accurate, but easy enough in temper 
to make a great deal of humor, and to comment upon those char- 
acteristic customs and habits which, while they escape the attention 
of the formal historian, are full of sienificance." — The Outlook. 



New York— Gr. P. Putnam'S Sons — London 



H 77 7 



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